At-Home Activities

Look for media reports that deal with DNA fingerprinting in criminal cases.

Think about television shows, movies or televised commercials that depict scientists. List the stereotypes that are evident in the portrayal of scientists in the popular media. What are the implications of these stereotypes for science-related fields? Discuss these with family members and classmates.

Look through newspapers, magazines and other resources to locate an example of a pie chart, data table or graph. What can you learn from each illustration? What makes it an effective means of communicating information?

• Locate some pine trees around your community. Do you notice any plant growth under these trees?
• Identify a quadrant of lawn that has many weeds. Record the number of different species you see there.

As you explore the issue of transplant farms identified in this lesson, try to locate a person who is on a transplant waiting list or a member of a medical transplant team. Interview the person(s) to learn their perspective on this issue. Share your research findings with family members and solicit their views on this issue.

Using library or Internet sources, conduct additional research on Dolly, food cloning or legal cloning.

The Chapter Review (pp. 198-199) in your textbook lists all the Key Expectations you have covered in the chapter and identifies the specific lessons in which the knowledge and skills have been developed.

You can use the Key Expectations list to help you create a personal study guide in preparation for an end-of-chapter test:

1. Copy down the list of learning expectations from your textbook.
2. For each learning expectation, locate the appropriate lesson(s) in the unit where the expectation was covered. These are identified in parentheses at the end of each expectation (e.g., 6.2).
3. Flip to the appropriate lesson(s) for each expectation and make study notes of the key ideas or skills you learned.