Gregor Mendel: Genetics Pioneer

Gregor Mendel Genetics Pioneer is an expository nonfiction text about the father of modern genetics: Gregor Mendel. Topics such as Mendel’s early years, genetics, Mendel’s Laws of Heredity, dominant and recessive genes and Mendel’s research and legacy are explained. The text includes a section on geneticist Barbara McClintock. Readers gain interesting information from text and graphics. A two-page experiment written in third person procedural language invites students to survey their family and friends to find out how many of them display certain dominant or recessive traits.

Gregor Mendel Genetics Pioneer is divided into sections. A range of illustrations are used which add information and support the reader’s interpretation of the text, including charts, and labeled photos. Many fact boxes and sidebars are used to provide students with additional learning opportunities. Periods, commas, quotation marks, and question marks are used. A table of contents, a glossary, and an index support the reader.

Sentences structures and lengths vary with a wide variety of parts of speech. Base words with affixes and a full range of plurals and compound words are used. Sentences contain connectives, possessives, contractions, prepositional phrases, and verbs with inflection endings. The text occasionally uses parentheses embedded in sentences. Glossary words are bold faced throughout the text. Some words appear in the vocabulary of mature language users.

This title is from the Science Readers series from Teacher Created Materials. Build literacy skills and science content knowledge with high-interest, appropriately levelled information texts.