Learning Objectives
- To better understand the concepts of heritability, and reaction range.
- Understand and describe the interaction of genes and environment in determining traits.
Materials
- Whiteboards
- Dry Erase Markers and Erasers
Overview
The goal of this lab is to help students understand the roles of both genetics and environment in shaping who we are. Students will participate in several activities, in which they will discuss:
- The strengths and limitations of behavioral genetics and heritability studies.
- How heritability of intelligence (the proportion of genetic variation to individual variability in intelligence) increases from childhood to adulthood.
Time Allocation:
| Activity | Time Allocation |
|---|---|
| Introduction | 10 Minutes |
| Activity 1: Group Discussions | 15 Minutes |
| Class Discussion | 5 Minutes |
| Activity 2: Concept Map | 10 Minutes |
| Take Home Message & Wrap-Up | 5 Minutes |
| Final Submission | 5 Minutes |
Introduction (10 min)
In Chapter 4 students are learning about genetic inheritance and how behavioral genetics helps us understand the degree to which our genes and environment contribute to shaping our intelligence and personality.
This information should have prepared them to participate actively in the discussion for this learning lab. However, the topic of heritability is one that can easily be misunderstood (and even lead to dangerous conclusions), so this lab will have longer introduction than usual to make sure students are on the same page.
This introduction is not just a lecture portion, each slide will contain questions which the TAs should actively ask the students, to probe their current understanding of this topic. The slide presenter notes will contain information to help TAs guide the discussion.
For this lab, we encourage all TAs to thoroughly read these notes in advance, as well as doing some prior studying of these concepts to make sure they can adequately engage with the students as well.
Activity 1: Small Group Discussion (15 min)
Groups will receive one of three prompts (there will be overlap between groups) and will be tasked to discuss how different factors in genetics and the environment interact for this specific topic.
Encourage students to be detailed in their discussion, giving specific examples to illustrate their thoughts. They are fully free to do any additional research on their phones/computers or the textbook.
The discussion they will be making here will be somewhat similar to what was done during the introduction on the topic of intelligence/IQ, only now for these different topics.
After they are done, they should have:
- Some bullet points on their whiteboard.
- How do genetics influence this topic?
- How does the environment influence this topic?
- How do these two interact?
- One illustrative example, fictional or otherwise to represent their thoughts as a group.
Discussion Prompts:
- Personality
- Psychopathology
- “Talent”
Class Discussion (5 min)
Have students from each group give an overview of what they discussed and the topics they came up with.
Activity 2: Concept Map (10 min)
For this second activity, students will be given an initial list of words but are welcome to add any more they find important. The goal will be to draw a concept map, using lines, arrows, and shapes to indicate how they think each word connects to the other. They may also use colors to highlight certain relationships if they like.
Word list:
- Genes
- Environment
- Parent
- Offspring
- Traits
Wrap-Up (5 min):
- The debate of “Nature versus Nurture” is an overly simplistic view. Both genes and environment actively interact to define who we are.
- The role of the environment goes beyond the simple idea of a selector or something that influences expression of genes. The organisms themselves actively interact and shape their environment, and are in turn shaped by it, in an active and complex loop.
- Although genetics may play an important role in defining an individual’s traits, it is important to understand these mechanisms properly, to avoid falling into misinterpretations that have been historically used for oppression.
Final Submission Question (5 min):
Was it difficult to produce a concept map with your group? What were the main points you tried to express with it? Did you make use of any additional concepts not in the original list?