Celebrity Babies (printer friendly)

These protocols are thought to be suitable for S1/S2 pupils but all schools should conduct the necessary risk assessments before performing the experiment.


Objective
To understand how the genetic inheritance of traits and/or characteristics occurs, and why genetic variation happens in
the population.

Context in real-life
To understand the role of DNA in making us who we are and why we are not identical copies of our parents.

Links with the curriculum
Concept of DNA and genetic inheritance
Dominant and recessive alleles – check if part of curriculum includes understanding the concept of homozygous and
heterozygous alleles with respect to phenotypic outcome

Kit needed
• Key – contains information on dominant and recessive traits such as hair colour, hair type and eye colour. To make the
activity straightforward the key shows two genes for each characteristic: hair colour- D= dark hair gene (dominant) and
d= fair hair gene (recessive); hair type- C= curly hair gene (dominant) and c= straight hair gene (recessive); eye colour-
B= brown eye gene (dominant) and b= blue eye gene (recessive).
• Cards with pictures of well known celebrities.
l Worksheet – to fill in the genotype and phenotype of the celebrity baby.

Description of experiment
1. Introduce children to topic and briefly describe activity.
2. Working in small groups, pupils are given the above kit containing cards with a picture of one well known female celebrity
(e.g. Kylie Minogue) and one well known male celebrity (e.g. Robbie Williams).
3. Using the key, pupils discuss what physical characteristics each celebrity has and therefore what genes they must have for
each trait (e.g. Robbie Williams has dark (D), straight hair (c) and blue eyes (b) while Kylie Minogue has fair (d), curly (C)
hair and blue eyes (b)).
4. Pupils can then write down what genes the celebrity baby would have (e.g. the genotype of Robbie and Kylie’s baby
would be= DdCcbb).
5. Explain how in cases where a baby would inherit different genes for a characteristic the dominant gene masks the effect
of the recessive gene. Pupils can then write down what the baby would look like.

Likely outcomes and what they mean
Identify the characteristics of the babies and why they will have these characteristics (e.g. Robbie and Kylie’s baby would
probably have dark, curly hair and blue eyes).

Opportunities for extension
• Introduce the concept of heterozygosity by having one or both of the celebrity parents having different genes for
a characteristic. Pupils could then work out the percent chances of the baby having each characteristic using a
Punnett Square.
• Work backwards- i.e. have pictures of a baby, celebrity mother and a selection of potential celebrity fathers. Pupils could
then discuss who is likely to be the father by working out the genotype of the baby, mother and possible fathers.
• Discuss how behavioural traits (e.g. addiction) and complex diseases (e.g. cancer) may have a genetic as well as an
environmental component.


This activity sheet is one of several developed by early career scientists at the MRC Human Reproductive Science Unit in
Edinburgh. You can download all the activity sheets at www.hrsu.mrc.ac.uk/schools. If you experience problems accessing the
website, please email schools@hrsu.mrc.ac.uk.