Off spring

In this section we’ll discuss genetics, however unlike in the previous section we won’t talk much about the make up of DNA, but instead the type of offspring it can create.

The first thing we need to know is types of variation

We can break variation up into two categories. Continuous and Discontinuous

Continuous Variation.

Things like height, weight and foot length are types of continues variation.

Individuals height over a population varies greatly. If we got the shortest and tallest person in the world, we could probably fit every one else in between and get a stead increase.

If we graphed this data, to would look something like the graph on the left.

Notice how the graph is a bell curve and the data flows from column to column.

This shape of graph is typical with continuous variation.

Discontinuous Variation.

Things like eye colour, blood type, hair colour and gender are examples of discontinuous variation.

A characteristic of any species with only a limited number of possible values, is discontinuous variation.  

Since discontinuous variations come in categories the graph looks very different. The graph to the left shows blood groups. Since there are only 4 possible types (A, B, AB and O) there are only 4 columns which people fit into.

Questions

1. Give 2 examples of continuous data

2. Give 2 examples of Discontinuous data.

3. Talk to 10 people in the class, measure the hand size from pinky to thumb. Record this data on a graph.

4. Talk to 10 people in the class, record their eye colour and create a graph.

When creating a graph, ensure you use the correct labels, titles, and type of graph.