Unit Overview

Students explore mutations as DNA changes causing trait variations understanding beneficial, neutral, and harmful effects. Through solving identical-looking but different-tasting food mysteries or examining mutation cases in populations, conducting experiments modeling DNA replication errors and environmental mutation triggers like radiation, and engineering CRISPR applications or mutation protection strategies, students learn how genetic changes drive evolution and disease.

  • Lesson 1
    Lesson 1: Solve: Mutations Phenomena + Six-Toed Cat Mystery

    Solve: Mutations Phenomena + Six-Toed Cat Mystery

    Kitty Perry has six toes and judges want to disqualify her from the Pretty Kitty Show—"it's just not normal!" Students follow Mosa as she interviews a chromosome and a crazy cat lady to discover why Kitty inherited this extra toe. By the end, they understand that mutations are copying errors in DNA that get passed down through generations, and that these changes can be beneficial, harmful, or simply unique.

  • Lesson 2
    Lesson 2: Make: Compete in survival challenges to determine whether mutations are helpful, harmful, or neutral

    Make: Compete in survival challenges to determine whether mutations are helpful, harmful, or neutral

    Students become alien geneticists. They draw gene codes from a bag to create aliens with different trait variations (Tiptoe vs. Walking vs. Shuffle vs. Heels locomotion, different eye colors affecting vision, different mouth types affecting eating). Then they compete in three survival challenges—racing, finding food with color-filtered "goggles," and eating with different utensils—to test which mutations help aliens survive. The data reveals which traits are beneficial, harmful, or neutral, and students design an Ultimate Alien based on their findings.

  • Lesson 3
    Lesson 3: Engineer: Use CRISPR, a new gene editing tool, to Engineer a Solution to a Genetic Problem

    Engineer: Use CRISPR, a new gene editing tool, to Engineer a Solution to a Genetic Problem

    CRISPR is a revolutionary gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make intentional mutations. Students learn how CRISPR works, choose a "gene of interest" from a library (disease resistance, drought tolerance, bioluminescence, etc.), research the gene, design a CRISPR procedure to modify an organism's DNA, and present their genetic engineering solution at a mock "Genetic Engineering World Conference." It's bioethics meets cutting-edge science, with students grappling with real questions about whether humans should modify nature.

  • Next Generation Science Standards
    MS-LS3-1
    Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on conceptual understanding that changes in genetic material may result in making different proteins.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include specific changes at the molecular level, mechanisms for protein synthesis, or specific types of mutations.]
    MS-LS4-5
    Gather and synthesize information about technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on synthesizing information from reliable sources about the influence of humans on genetic outcomes in artificial selection (such as genetic modification, animal husbandry, gene therapy); and, on the impacts these technologies have on society as well as the technologies leading to these scientific discoveries.]
  • Inquiry Scale
    • Each lesson in the unit has an Inquiry Scale that provides directions on how to implement the lesson at the level that works best for you and your students.
    • “Level 1” is the most teacher-driven, and recommended for students in 4th-5th grades. “Level 4” is the most student-driven, and recommended for students in 7th-8th grades.
    • For differentiation within the same grade or class, use different inquiry levels for different groups of students who may require additional support or an extra challenge.
  • Common Misconceptions
    • Students often assume that all mutations are bad. Emphasize to students that mutations can often be beneficial or have no effect at all. A great example is the mutation for sickle cell anemia: if an individual is a carrier of the mutation, they are immune to malaria.
    • The terms DNA, gene and chromosome are often confused. A simple picture can show how coiled DNA creates a chromosome and a gene is a section of DNA that codes for a particular trait.
    • Students often think there is only one gene for every trait. In reality, most traits are due to multiple genes interacting.
    • Students initially think that all mutations that occur will be passed onto offspring. Emphasize that there are normal body cells and sex cells. The mutation can only be passed on if it happens in a sex cell because that is used to make the offspring.
  • Vocabulary
      • Gene
      • Chromosome
      • Trait
      • Mutation
      • DNA
      • Protein
  • Content Expert
    • Mohamed Noor
      Professor of Biology Duke University
  • Leveled Reading

    * To give our users the most comprehensive science resource, Mosa Mack is piloting a partnership with RocketLit, a provider of leveled science articles.

    • We're All Different

      Most of our traits are inherited, or passed down, from our parents. Some of them can be the result of mutations, which is an important of the genetic variation that makes different organisms unique and more likely to survive in a changing environment.

    • How do Living Things Change?

      How do living things change into all the different organisms around us? In this article, students read an introduction to the idea that genes are responsible for creating proteins. Mutations in genes can change the proteins that are made and this can change the traits of the organism.

    • Don't Hate on the Trait

      Traits are passed down through genes. Heredity is the study of how these directions are passed down from parents to children.

    • We're All Different

      Most of our traits are inherited, or passed down, from our parents. Some of them can be the result of mutations, which is an important of the genetic variation that makes different organisms unique and more likely to survive in a changing environment.

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