Deoxyribonucleic Acid and other fun things

This week at Pathfinders I started teaching the heredity honor.  The group of kids that I am teaching consists of 14 kids of ages 12-16.  This age range is more preferable to me because the kids are close to my own age.  Middle school age children tend to be hyper and very loud, so the high school group was a better fit for me.  Basically, the honor consists of questions that the kids need to answer.  They will not be tested on this but they should to be aware and retain at least some of what they have learned.  This is a big challenge because only 10 percent of what is learned in a class is remembered as they leave the classroom.

I got through a lot of the topics that we needed to discuss, mostly with the help of a worksheet that I created for the honor.  We got through most of the "boring" stuff such as mitosis, meiosis, and chromosomes so that next week we can maybe do some fun stuff.  I am working on a mini project that my mentor uses in her biology classes which have relevance in the area of heredity.  I am also looking for some pictures or a movie that shows some heritable traits.  I am in the process of asking my mentor for a "scientific" way to show genetics at work.  I know a very fun way to use science to see if a person possesses a dominant or recessive trait of taste.  I am even trying to work out a game for them that will provide physical activity while they are learning.  It has been very difficult to come up with a game, but I may have an idea.  I will not post the idea until I am sure, or not sure, that I will implement it into my class.  And now for your amusement, here are some pictures of myself as well as some students from my class this week.

*UPDATE*: Today, around 10:30, I ordered some specific types of genetic paper that will let the kids see what type of gene they have according to what they taste.  Hopefully the paper will be in by Wednesday.