Name __________________________ Date ___________________ Period _____ Score out of 25 _____
Corrected by ________________________
Observing Human Traits Lab
How much do traits vary in your classroom?
Traits are physical characteristics you inherit from your parents. In this investigation, you will take an
inventory of your observable traits and compare these to the observable traits of your classmates. You will
then take inventory of students and teachers in your school. Finally, you will determine the frequency of
each trait in your school’s population.
Observing your own traits
a. The graphic below shows seven different human traits. Each trait has two different forms. Study the
chart below, then follow the procedures carefully.
1. Working with a partner, observe which form you have for trait A through F. Circle your form of each
trait in Table 1. NOTE: For finger hair, even if you have only one hair on any of your mid-digits, you
have finger hair.
Table 1: Inventory of traits
Trait Form 1 Form 2
A. Earlobe Free Attached
B. Dimples Absent Present
C. Chin Cleft No cleft
D. Hairline Widow’s peak Straight
E. Finger hair Present Absent
F. Thumb Straight thumb Hitchhiker’s thumb
Stop and think
2 For earlobes only, how many students in your class do you think will share the same form (free or
attached) as you? Explain your reasoning. _____________________________________
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3. Do you think any of your classmates will have the same form of all traits as you? ___________
4. Make a prediction about how many of your classmates will have the same form of all seven traits as
you. _________________________________________________________
Collecting class data
Enter your results in the chart your teacher has placed on the board.
5. Record the numbers from the chart into columns 2 and 4 of Table 2 below.
Table 2: Class data for observable traits
Trait Number of Frequency of Number of Frequency of
students with students with students with students with
Form 1 Form 1 Form 2 Form 2
A. Earlobe
B. Dimples
C. Chin
D. Hairline
E. Finger hair
F. Thumb
6. Calculate the frequency of each form of the trait for your class. Use this formula:
(No. of students with form of trait ÷ Total number of students in class) × 100
7. Make a bar graph of the data in Table 2. Your graph should compare frequencies for each form of each
trait. Put traits on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.
Title: _________________________________________________________________________
Name ______________________________ Date _________________________ Period ________
Observing Human Traits Lab Page 2
Thinking about what you observed
8. For each trait, which form was most common, Form 1 or Form 2?
___________________ ___________________
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9. Why do you think one form is more common than the other?
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10. Do you think your classroom population is typical of a larger population such as your
entire school or community? Explain your answer.
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11. Traits are controlled by factors called genes. For each trait listed in Table 1, you get one gene from
your mother and one gene from your father. For each trait, there is a dominant form and a recessive
form. The dominant gene masks the effect of the recessive gene for the trait. Based on your class
data, which form of each trait do you think is the dominant form? Explain your answer.
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The dominant and recessive forms for each trait you studied are listed below.
Trait Dominant form Recessive form
A. Earlobe Free Attached
B. Dimples Dimples present No dimples
C. Chin Cleft present No cleft
D. Hairline Widow’s peak Straight
E. Finger hair Finger hair present No finger hair
F. Thumb Straight thumb Hitchhiker’s thumb
12. Was the recessive form of any trait more frequent than the dominant form? Explain this result.
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