As an extension of the children’s thinking and conversations around their family trees, the students next began to think about how physical traits may be passed down over time through their genes, or DNA. Together they defined genes as “the physical and mental traits that are passed down within a family, sometimes skipping generations.”

This was a new lens from which to interpret the question: “Who are my people?”, shifting their thinking to a more scientific and corporeal understanding of who their people are and how that shapes the person they are today. Similar to their work with family trees, they were drawing connections between themselves and their people across generations, but they now had another layer of understanding- the physical traits that make us who we are- to understand how we are connected and related to our people.

In order to further their understanding of the inherited nature of certain traits, the children studied a citrus family tree. There was so much interest and theorizing coming out of their dialogue about the citrus family tree that we decided to set up a hands-on provocation to take their thinking on the connections between shared traits within family trees deeper.

Photo credit: National Geographic

The following day the children conducted a gallery walk of assorted citrus fruits and made predictions as a class based on various characteristics [size, shape, smell, taste, texture, seed quantity and size, rind composition, etc.] First, the children began with a study of the characteristics they could readily observe from the outside of the fruit.

They used their senses of touch, sight, and smell to observe traits of the fruit and then came together to make predictions about what they thought they might find on the inside. Theories emerged about the factors that might affect seed quantity, seed size, juiciness, and smell of certain fruits.

Once their predictions were made and theories shared, the children embarked on yet another gallery walk of the citrus fruits, this time using their senses to observe the similarities and differences among citrus fruits based on their insides.

After inspecting the fruits from both the outside and the inside, some students chose to participate in a comparative taste testing of the fruits. This allowed for yet another layer of sensory information- taste- from which to form theories about inherited and shared traits.

When the children shared their experiences tasting the various fruits, an interesting observation began to emerge, as the children noticed that there was disagreement over which fruits were sour, sweet, or bitter. This debate brought us to the discovery that many of us “taste [the same fruit] differently” and that that difference may itself be an inherited trait.

Why do we taste things differently?  

How are citrus family trees like our own family trees?

Following our investigation into the shared traits within the citrus fruit family, the children applied that thinking to their own human family tree. The citrus tree experiment had gotten the children thinking about their own shared and inherited traits [hair color, eye color, tongue roll, widow’s peak, hair texture, facial features, etc.]. They became curious if they could map out- or trace- certain physical or mental traits in themselves and connect them to other family members. For some children, they had a strong and innate sense of the parts of themselves that they shared with or inherited from other family members. For others, however, the question proved more elusive. After their initial attempt at representing their traits, we came together to further discuss what it means to share a trait, as a means of inspiring and expanding their thinking.

What does it mean you have them (traits)?

Elina drew several generations of her family tree and then mapped out distinguishing characteristics (glasses, hair color, eye color) that were shared within her interconnected web of her people.

Sadie first highlighted specific traits (eye color, hair color, clover tongue) and then connected various family members to these traits.

Isabelle first diagramed various traits (tongue roll, eye color, bunny teeth) and then created trees of how those traits were passed down between family members, a “traits tree.”

Harper used text to describe personal traits and whom she got them from. “I got my blue eyes from my dad. I got my green eyes from my mom. And I got my body from my dad. I got me smarts and good drawing abilities from my mom. I got my hair color from both sides of the family. And I got liking sports from my dad. I also have the same mole as my great grandmother.”

The children began this year’s investigation into “their people” by zooming in and collecting personal stories through the recording of family interviews. They then zoomed out their scope by thinking of the interconnected relationships of their people through the creation of family trees and then expanded their thinking to consider themselves as extensions and reflections of their people in their study of shared traits.

In the next blog, we will detail how the students continued to consider this question: “Who are my people?” through yet another lens as they worked to develop both personal timelines for specific relatives as well as co-constructing a collaborative class timeline of world history, and in doing so contextualizing their people within the broader story of our shared human history. Even as the children moved on to new ways of thinking about their people, they continued to carry their curiosities about genes and traits over into their current and final stage of our project work, as they are now making books that represent their own individualized and personal connection to “their people.”

The post Tracing our Traits: Seeing Ourselves In Our People appeared first on Sabot at Stony Point.