Genetics - Family Medical History Pedigree

Family Medical History Pedigree

Teacher: Joyce R. Calo: Cleveland Heights, OH
Target Audience: Biology II, AP Biology
Materials Needed: worksheet, handout
Class Time: outside project
Brief Summary: A family medical history is of prime importance to your physician, to you, and in the future, could be very valuable to your children and other future descendents.
Student Objective(s): The student is to research his/her family medical history and produce a pedigree with information.
Description of Activities: You are to research and construct a family tree that records medical background. After determining which medical conditions are hereditary in your family, make a code for each condition. (e.g. 1=heart disease, 2=diabetes, etc.) Keep this code on a separate sheet of paper. Remember, this is a private matter. Construct a family pedigree. On a separate sheet of paper, make a chart summarizing your findings. Include in this chart, average age at death and major causes of death (using codes) for both your maternal and paternal sides of the family. For the four most common health issues in your family, determine the inheritance pattern for each one. Support your decision as to type of inheritance. From this medical history, draw any conclusions that you can on how this might affect your life span and quality of health.
Further Information and References: "Living Legacy", Life, April 1995, pp. 60-69. Project was modified from a project presented at the 1994 summer workshop.

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