Paper Pet Project
Did you ever wonder why some offspring resemble their parents while others do not? You
should now have some background knowledge on how offspring come to have traits similar to
those of their parents. In this project, you’ll create a family of “paper pets” to explore how
traits pass from parents to offspring. You will create two paper pets that you will then cross to
determine what traits their offspring will have.
To complete this project successfully you must:
Create two of your unique paper pets each with five different traits
Cross your two pets together to produce 6 offspring
Determine what traits the offspring will have
Explain how the offspring came to have those traits
Step 1: Cut out your pets from either blue or yellow construction paper.
Step 2: Chose other traits for your pet from this list:
Female or male (1 of each)
Eye shape (square or round)
Nose shape (oval or triangular)
Teeth shape (pointed or square)
Step 3: Determine your pet’s genotypes. On the back of each one, write what alleles your pets
have for each trait. Use XX for a female and XY for a male. You may choose the dominant alleles
for each of your other traits (example BB for purebred blue skin, Bb for hybrid blue skin and bb
for recessive yellow skin). HINT: If your pet has a trait controlled by a dominant allele, you can
choose which of the possible combinations of alleles your pet has.
Pet A Pet B
Phenotype Genotype Phenotype Genotype
Male/Female
Skin Color
Eye Shape
Nose Shape
Teeth Shape
Step 4: You will now cross your two pets together to produce six offspring. For each trait, use
coin tosses to determine which allele that offspring will inherit from each parent. For example,
if your female parent has an allele combination of Bb for blue skin, heads could represent B and
tails could represent b. Your coin toss result would determine which allele it would inherit from
its’ mother. You would then need to do another coin toss to determine which allele it would
inherit from the father for your two allele combination. List the allele combination for each of
your six offspring below. Then either construct of draw out your six offspring to compare them
to your parent pets.
Offspring 1 Offspring 2 Offspring 3
Mom Dad Allele Comb.
Mom Dad Allele Comb.
Mom Dad Allele Comb.
Male/Female
Skin Color
Eye Shape
Nose Shape
Teeth Shape
Offspring 4 Offspring 5 Offspring 6
Mom Dad Allele Comb.
Mom Dad Allele Comb.
Mom Dad Allele Comb.
Male/Female
Skin Color
Eye Shape
Nose Shape
Teeth Shape
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