Before I started teaching high school, I taught middle school science for 14 years and my absolute favorite topic to teach students is genetics. The “a-ha” moments when they learn about Punnett Squares, the ability to connect to their own lives, and the amount of creativity that I can add to my classroom add to my excitement about teaching genetics. For years, I utilized the tried and true resources like “Spongebob Genetics” and “Simpsons Genetics” worksheets that can be found all over the internet. They’re amazing and the kids love them because they love all of those silly characters…. but then one day, I was grading one of those worksheets and a student who was never the best worker/reader got 100% I was excited for him… but as I was reading his answers, I realized that they were the EXACT answers on the answer key, which is easily found online. I browsed through the rest of his classmates papers and found at least 5 more with the exact, same answers.
That was the day I realized that my kids were way more advanced on “using their resources” than I had given them credit for. Last year, I gave said Spongebob worksheet to my high school biology students as a review and told them that they could use their 1-to-1 devices to check their steps, as I’d posted our classroom slideshows in Google Classroom. As I circulated, I noticed that some students hurriedly minimized their windows with a sheepish look on their faces. I snagged one of their Chromebooks, opened up the page to see the answer key that they had Googled. Nice! I guess Spongebob and Homer Simpson have seen the last of my classroom and it was time to make some new resources. Kids are so adept at using technology and are usually one step ahead of us teachers.
The holidays were coming up, so I created some holiday themed worksheets to use as a mini review/ assessment for my students. They loved them [almost] as much as Spongebob, but I had the luxury of knowing that there would be no way for them to look up the answers.
Randolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was created using coin flips to determine dominant and recessive traits.
