1. The aim of this assignment is to find one chicken, and one
cockerel, and make them breed super hens. We have been
given three chickens and two cockerels. I have narrowed the
chickens down to two because the one chicken (Fern) is a
nuisance. The chicken farmer has given the information
about the sizes of the eggs the chickens lay and how many
they lay per week.

2. •Slide 5 – Chickens
•Slide 6 – Cockerels
•Slide 7 – Variation
•Slide 8 – Continuous Variation
•Slide 9 – Discontinuous Variation
•Slide 10 - Causes of Features
•Slide 11 – Genetic Variation
•Slide 12 – Genetic Variation Continued
•Slide 13 – Environmental Variation
•Slide 14 – Environmental Variation Continued

3. •Slide 15 – Chromosomes
•Slide 16 – Inheritance
•Slide 17 – Genetic Cross Diagrams
•Slide 18 – Genetic Cross Diagrams
•Slide 19 – Cockerel and Chicken I Chose
•Slide 20 – Rosemary and Brian
•Slide 21 – Rosemary and Brian
•Slide 22 – Selective Breeding

4. •Slide 23 – Selective Breeding Continued
•Slide 24 – My Conclusion
•Slide 25 – Thanks For Watching!

5. Marjory
Average number of
eggs per week-5.
Average size of eggs-
large.
Rosemary
Average number of
eggs per week-10.
Average size of
eggs-small.

6. Brian
Average number of eggs
per week-6. Average egg
size-large.
Bob
Average number of eggs
per week-8. Average size
of eggs-small.

7. Living things that are the same belong to the same
species. Cats for example are their own species. Two
individual species usually cannot reproduce. They
produce something called an offspring. An offspring is
usually infertile and are unable to reproduce.

8. Continuous variation is just one of the types of
variation. Continuous variation is a range of different
things. For example, height is continuous variation
because there is more than two different heights you
can be and it gradually changes. Foot length and
weight are also continuous variation. This a graph
showing height variation.

9. Discontinuous variation is when you have a limited
number of something. For example, eye colour, gender
and blood groups are all types of discontinuous variation.
Blood groups are a type of discontinuous variation
because there are only four types, A, B, AB and O. This is
a graph of the percentage of the population with the
different blood groups.

10. How many eggs they produce per week and the egg
size isn’t just their genetics, it can be environmental
factors. It can depend on how much they are being fed,
if they get exercise or if they get to run around outside
and get enough vitamin D. Also, if two chickens have
large eggs, they might not be exactly the same size
because one chicken’s egg could be very large and
another chicken’s egg could be medium large. So, how
big is large, how small is small?

11. Genetic variation is what you get from your parents.
The colour of your eyes and hair are examples of
genetic variation. A child won’t look exactly like his
father, he will look a bit like his father and a bit like
his mother. This is because they inherit different
features from different parents. Some examples are,
gender, eye colour, hair colour, skin colour and
lobed or lobe less ears.

12. Each egg cell nucleus and sperm cell nucleus
contain half of the person’s genetic information.
During fertilisation, the nucleus from the sperm cell
joins with the nucleus in the egg cell, and a new
nucleus is formed with all the genetic information
needed for an individual.

13. Environmental variation is when the environment around
you changes you. For example, if you dye your hair or
cut down a tree branch it is classed as environmental
information. Another example is if you eat too much you
will become heavier and if you eat too little you will be
lighter. Variation in a feature as a result as a certain
factor in the surroundings is called environmental
variation. Some other examples are your language, your
race and religion. For example, hydrangeas produce
blue flowers in acidic soil and pink flowers in alkaline
soil.

14. Some features vary because of a mixture of inherited
causes and environmental causes. For example, identical
twins inherit exactly the same features from their parents.
But if you take a pair of twins, and twin ‘A’ is given less to
eat than twin ‘B’, then twin ‘A’ will be lighter.

15. Chromosomes are made out of DNA (deoxyribonucleic
acid). There are 46 chromosomes in everyone's body. In
reproduction the parents both give 23 chromosomes to
the baby. The sperm and the egg meet which creates the
zygote. The zygote has two sets of 23 chromosomes.

16. These are some pictures of inheriting features.

17. The genetic cross diagram below shows the possible
features of the children born to parents who have
different features. We use letters to represent the alleles.
Dominant alleles have a capital letter and recessive
alleles have a small letter.
Rosemary = ee
Brian = EE
E E
e
e
Ee Ee
Ee Ee
Marjory = EE
Bob = ee
e e
E
E
Ee Ee
Ee Ee

18. Brian = EE
Marjory = EE
Bob = ee
Rosemary = ee
EE EE
EE
EE
EE EE
EE EE
ee ee
ee
ee
ee ee
ee ee

19. Brian Rosemary

20. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Brian Rosemary
Brian's Eggs Per
Week
Rosemaryk's
Eggs Per Week

21. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Brian Rosemary
Brian's Mother's
Egg Size
Rosemary's Egg
Size
5 = Small 10 = Large

22. Over time, a species can change its appearance and
could even evolve into a new species, but it could be
unable to reproduce successfully with individuals of
the original species. Selective breeding, also called
artificial selection, involves people taking charge over
which animal breeds with the other and to produce
new varieties of that species. A variety is a type of a
particular species that is different in some clear way
from other varieties of that species.

23. As an example, pedigree dogs come in lots of varieties
or breeds. They could be different colours or sizes.
If you wanted a variety of cow that produced a lot of milk.
You could:
•Choose or select the cows in your herd that produce the
most amount of milk
•Only let THESE cows reproduce
•Select the offspring that produce the most milk
•Only let THESE offspring reproduce
•Keep repeating the process of selection and breeding
until you get the cow that produces a lot of milk.

24. Taking into account all that I have learnt in this topic, I
am not sure what sort of eggs Rosemary and Brian will
produce at first but I would breed them and then pick
the chicken and cockerel that have the largest and
most eggs. I would breed them again and see if the
outcome was the same. In the next generation I would
try to breed the best chicken and cockerel. Finally,
through selective breeding, I would hope to produce a
chicken which can lay as many large eggs as possible
on every occasion.

25. I am Super Chicken!