Our first Project Lead the Way module was called Variation of Traits. In this module the students had to help Farmer John solve the problem of why each generation of plants from his new seeds looked different. The students learned about dominant and recessive genes. They took a survey of traits that they may or may not have such as cleft chin, freckles, and dimples. They learned about genotype and phenotype. The students learned how to use a Punnett Square to investigate possible genotypes and phenotypes of pea plants. Finally, the students looked at three generations of Wisconsin Fast Plants that they had grown and looked at the stem colors of the parent plants and compared that to the first and second generations. The students did a great job with this module.

In the pictures below, the students had to pick a gene card from each parent that would determine stem length, color, thorns, no thorns, leaf shape, flower type, color, etc. This is what they came up with from the parent plants pictured here.