Coin Sex Lab Relate and Review

In this lab, my partner and I flipped coins to figure out the genotype and phenotype of the children. We did four mini experiments to find out if the predictions that we made were somewhat accurate. We tested to see if the offspring were either a male or female, if they had bipolar disorder or not, if they the offspring were colorblind and lastly we tested a dihybrid cross while testing the traits of brown hair, blonde hair, brown eyes and blue eyes. The colorblind experiment was an example of x linked inheritance because colorblindness is a x linked recessive disorder. The experiment that genetically linked through autosomal dominance is bipolar disorder. In this experiment we crossed monohybrids, homozygous recessive and heterozygous traits(bb*Bb), to find the probability of how many children will have bipolar disorder. The coins that we flipped were acting as the genes and alleles for the trait that we were testing. Another way that coins serve as a model for genetic concepts is that the chromosomes randomly split during meiosis which represents Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment. Also, the coins represent recombination or sex. When we did the experiment with the dihybrid cross, we predicted, using probability, we expected to have 9 offspring with brown hair and brown eyes, 3 offspring with blond hair and brown eyes, 3 offspring with brown hair and blue eyes and the last child to have blond hair and blue eyes. We used the punnett square to predict what is the outcomes. We crossed a double heterozygous allele with another double heterozygous allele. Our results matched exactly to the expected results. The reason that we got the results that we predicted was because of the Law of Probability held true. The law of Probability states that the there will be a higher chance of getting the most probable outcome. Some people will not get the expected outcome because of the law of independent assortment. The outcomes will always have the chance to be different, however it will have a less of chance to happen. Even though that punnett squares are very useful, there is a certain point where the results that you get from the punnett square are not reliable. Although punnett squares predict the most probable outcome, it is not always accurate. For example, when I flipped coins to try and find the sex of the offspring, the predicted result was 5 male and 5 female. However, when I flipped the coins, my partner and I got the result of 1 male to 9 females.  This shows that punnett squares are not always accurate. From this lab, I learned how to predict whether or not your offspring will be a male or a female, or for example if they will be colorblind. I can use this in my own life by predicting whether or not my child will be a boy or a girl and if they will have a disease