To further their understanding of alleles, freshmen in Mr. Dennis Goode’s Biology class are walking around to different classrooms to track dominant and non-dominant traits.

“This is a class project that is often done in AP Biology,” Goode said. “Now these are freshman doing it so we’ve modified it a little bit and they can do it so they can learn and go out, collect data to see what an AP type of project would be like.”

The traits could be if a student crosses their left thumb over their right or vice versa or if they can roll their tongues. Students analyzed their calculations to find how often that trait appeared on campus and compare it to the national average.

“I feel like the project will be a great learning experience since it is more hands-on and more interactive than just reading a paper and taking notes on it after,” freshman Bea Tan said.

The project will continue for the rest of January and February. At the end of the project, the students are required to write a scientific essay and present their research.

“They will be going around as teams of four, so when collecting data as a team their sample size isn’t as large and it makes it easier on themselves since they have to collect data from freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors,” Goode said.

After alleles and DNA the class will be learning about heredity and genetics.

“In order to maintain our five-star rating we have to challenge students to use and learn scientific research the way scientists to do, research using the scientific method and numbers in order to figure out significance,” Goode said. “And [the project] cool, students like it, they like to find some kind of trait and seeing what the frequency of that specific trait is at the school.”