Students often think they inherit separate genes.
Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment is only applicable if genes are on separate chromosomes. If genes are linked on the same chromosome, the probability of inheriting both those genes increases. Students are also taught that they have half of each parent's chromosomes, twenty-five percent of each grandparent's chromosomes, etc. This exercise will visually present the mode of inheritance of chromosomes through three generations, demonstrating the percent of chromosome inheritance from a grandparent as being a matter of chance. To familiarize students with the procedure of locating gene loci.