Eye+Color

=**Eye Color Experiment by: Ashlyn Peters and Madi McCoy 1st Hour**= The eye color gene in human's is a quantative trait that displays multifactorial inheritance. Madi and I believe that there must be a pattern to this trait that is shown through the dominant and recessive genes in your biological parents. (Human Genetics article on Springer Link; "You Asked", 2008)

What we plan to do for our experiment is take a survey of different people's eye colors and record what their biological parents eye colors are as well. The people we will test are just regular kids from our high school and then we will ask them what their biological parents eye colors are in order to get that piece of information. We are wanting to do this activity to try and find a pattern within the eye colors of your parents and yourself to help predict what eye colors you can expect from a newborn once the child is older. Some knowledge we have already recovered is that by 6 month's in a newborn's life the pigment that colors the iris is completely deposited. Also genes for eye color control the amount of pigment called melanin which is within the colored part of the eye, a human genome consists of 30,000 to 40,000 genes. (Gale Student Resources in Contex) Every person has something called alleles and we have two alleles for our eye color gene. Lastly blue eyes have very little pigment and brown eyes have an abundance of pigment compared to other eye colors. (A Beginners Guide to Genetics: Eye Color, 2008) Inheritance of eye color is considered polygenic which means that parent's genes usually determine the baby's eye color. There are three main elements within the iris contribute to the eyes color also. ([], 2012)
 * Purpose:**


 * Hypothesis:** If parents have the same eye color then their children will not have that eye color. Also the darker eye color we think is the most dominant gene that will pass down from the parents to their children rather than lighter eye color which we think has a less chance of passing down that gene.


 * Materials:** About 30 people to survey; Data table; Pencil; Calculator; Paper

1. Gather Materials 2. Pick 30 random people to survey 3. Ask the people what their parents eye colors are and also what their eye color is 4. Look over all the data to make sure we have the amount were looking for 5. Analyze Data 6. Find a pattern of the genes relating from the parents to the child 7. Share Results
 * Procedure:**

**Data Table:**

 * = ==**Students Eye Color**== ||= ==**Biological Father's Eye Color**== ||= ==**Biological Mother's Eye Color**== ||
 * = **Madi McCoy:** Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||= Blue ||
 * = **Ashlyn P.:** Blue ||= Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Kate M.:** Blue ||= Blue ||= Blue ||
 * = **Claire S.:** Green ||= Hazel ||= Blue ||
 * = **Hayley R.:** Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||= Blue ||
 * = **Sam Lee:** Blue ||= Blue ||= Green ||
 * = **Kylie A.:** Blue ||= Blue ||= Green ||
 * = **Cole C.:** Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||= Blue ||
 * = **Hannah H.:** Blue ||= Blue ||= Blue ||
 * = **Issac W.:** Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||= Green ||
 * = **Maddy H.:** Brown ||= ** Brown ** ||= Blue ||
 * = **Megan W.:** Green ||= ** Brown ** ||= Hazel ||
 * = **Meghan R.:** Hazel ||= Blue ||= Green ||
 * = **Morgan O.:** Blue ||= Hazel ||= Blue ||
 * = **Sadie T.:** Blue ||= Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Sinclair S.:** Green ||= Green ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Trey K.:** Blue ||= Blue ||= Hazel ||
 * = **Lauren M.:** Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||= Blue ||
 * = **Tia S.:** Green ||= Green ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Collin H.:** Hazel || Hazel ||= Hazel ||
 * = **Austin U.:** Brown ||= Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Paige H.:** Hazel ||= ** Brown ** ||= Blue ||
 * = **Emily C.:** Hazel ||= Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Maggie H.:** Brown ||= Hazel ||= Hazel ||
 * = **Angela J.:** Brown ||= ** Brown ** ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Bailey G.:** Brown ||= ** Brown ** ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Alex Evans:** Blue ||= Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Tim Cook:** Blue ||= ** Brown ** ||= Hazel ||
 * = **Monica D.:** Brown ||= Hazel ||= ** Brown ** ||
 * = **Marleigh A.:** Green ||= Blue ||= Green ||
 * Limitations: We had to survey people in the Washington area so we did not have much of a** **variety of people from different environments.**


 * Conclusion:The light and dark eye colors show no popularity in either side. You could have light or dark eye color no matter what the combination of light and dark is form your parents. Also occasionally if your parents have the same eye color there is a slight possibility you could produce that eye color.**

[] [] [] [] How will you record the parents eye color? (Baele) You might want to collect data on more generations such as grandparents and great-grandparents, so that you can get a larger sample size. (Olsen) You should explain to why you might be doing this experiment and who you are going to test on. (Holthe) You should let them know how long you are testing the people. (Crothers) You should go in depth about homozygous, heterozygous, recessive and dominant genes and how they can affect the child's eye color. ( Kasey Miller) (Why did you choose this topic? Schrock 1/11/13)
 * Information found in:**