Interactive Primary Bulletin 46     Reebop a lula she's my baby...

The Reebop Project

Second Level - By exploring the characteristics offspring inherit when living things reproduce, I can distinguish between inherited and non-inherited characteristics.

Introduction         Dominant, recessive & codominant genes        Preparation     The Activity
Curriculum for Excellence    Background Information   References

Introduction

This model organism for teaching genetics was developed by Patti Soderberg of the University of Wisconsin [1]. Although Reebops have been around for a while we had not come across this delightful creature until a recent workshop delivered by Diane Donnelly of Queensferry Primary School.

Reebobs in their natural habitat

Reebops provide a fun and simple way of introducing children to ideas of inherited characteristics and variation within a species. The genes and features are fantastical, and teachers may want to tell their pupils that genes would not usually throw up a three eyed baby from two eyed parents, for example. The original Reebops were made from marshmallows, toothpicks etc. However if these are unavailable or you don’t want your Reebops eaten before their time, they can be made successfully from other materials. The ones in the photographs were made using coloured, commercially available modelling dough but plasticine would work just as well. They could even make their own and colour with different food dyes [2]. The colours used for body parts and legs are not important provided there is sufficient material of each of those colours to make all the Reebops in the population. In addition you will need drawing pins for the eyes, card for the legs and pipe cleaners for the tail.
 

In this exercise you will be considering the following genes on the chromosomes of Reebops:

Symbol for gene - Dominant/recessive

Feature
E/e number of eyes
D/d number of body segments
T/t shape of tail
L/l colour of legs
Codominant  
A/a number of antennae
Q/q colour of nose
M/m number of humps
Table 1 - Gene symbols

Dominant, recessive and codominant genes

Pupils will be able to see dominant genes, such as in the gene for the number of eyes: EE and Ee give 2 eyes, E being dominant (or visible) while e is recessive (or hidden). Recessive genes are only visible when there are two copies inherited, e.g. 3 eyes are only produced by ee combinations. Codominant genes are different: each version of the gene is as strong as the other and each combination will give different results e.g. in the case of nose colour, QQ, Qq and qq all produce different colours.

AA – 1 antenna

Aa – 2 antennae

 aa – no antenna
QQ – red nose Qq – orange nose qq – yellow nose
EE – 2 eyes Ee – 2 eyes ee – 3 eyes
DD – 3 body segments Dd – 3 body segments dd – 2 body segments
MM – 1 hump Mm – 2 humps mm – 3 humps
TT – curly tail Tt – curly tail tt – curly tail
LL – blue legs Ll – blue legs ll – red legs
Table 2 - ‘Genetic code’ for models.

Preparation

First of all make your parent Reebops. The parents look exactly the same and there is no (genetic) distinction between male and female!!  Reebops have 7 pairs of chromosomes: Mum’s should be printed on coloured paper (pink?) and Dad’s on a different colour (blue?). It’s a good idea to make a Mum and Dad Reebop to show pupils before the process of creating baby Reebops begins. The “genetic code” used for these models is given in Table 1.

                 Figure 1 - Mum's Chromosomes                                                Figure 2 - The Happy Couple                                         Figure 3 - Dad's Chromosomes

Reebops - The Activity 

 
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