Chapter 12 Lecture Enrichment Ideas
Consider why the scientific "climate" had changed by 1900 so that three botanists rediscovered Mendel's ignored work.
If Mendel's pea plant traits were cases of epistasis, polygenic inheritance, etc., explain how this would have confounded Mendel's work and perhaps have misled him.
Consider polygenic inheritance and how it affects the expression of such traits as height, skin color, and intelligence. Cover the idea of a normal distribution, and consider what kind of offspring two very tall individuals would have. You might talk about the regression to the mean and why two very tall individuals would be likely to have children closer to the average height.
Discuss how interaction between the environment and the genotype produces the phenotype. Students often don't realize that the phenotype can change over time, as when hair changes from blonde in childhood, to dark in the adult, to white in the older person, even though the genes remain basically the same. Also consider that there are some changes in the genotype (e.g., producing cancer) as a person ages.
Back to Lecture Enrichment Ideas