Design a Stress Ball Kid
Updated: 6 days ago
What do stress balls have to do with genetics? Really, absolutely nothing. But we can change this today! Here is a fun way to teach basic genetic inheritance patterns in a biology class. It involves making homemade stress balls and then decorating them as a “baby or kid” with different inherited traits. Now, while this post is about using stress balls in a biology class, you can also make these in a health class.
When I used to teach health to 7th graders, I would have my students make these stress balls for a healthy coping skills and stress management lesson. Yep, I added them to our mental health unit. It was a cool addition to the unit. At the end of the lessons, I let students make a stress ball in class that they got to take home with them. They loved making these! It was a fun activity to end the unit with, and it is an easy one to do, too. My health students did not decorate them with faces though. I later came up with the idea to add faces to them when I thought about turning these into a genetics lesson for my biology classes. I thought it would be neat to combine a stress relieving activity with a genetics lesson, and this is what I came up with:
In the Design a Stress Ball Kid lab, students will flip coins to represent alleles from both the mom and the dad in determining traits for their “kid”. One person will assume the role for flipping for the mom’s allele and the other will flip for the dad’s allele.
After the lab, students will make a stress ball. For this reason, the activity will take at least two class periods. This lab comes with a lab packet that students will use to determine the varying traits in their “kid”. They will use craft material and sharpie markers to decorate the stress balls after they get their traits for their “kid”. In this lab, one student will be the mom’s allele and flip a coin to represent her gene and the other will flip a coin for the dad’s allele. Then they will combine these two alleles to form a genotype and write this genotype and phenotype on their data sheet. They will also indicate whether the genotype is homozygous or heterozygous. Once their traits data sheet is complete, students can begin designing their stress ball kid.
This activity will reinforce their understanding of the terms: dominant alleles, recessive alleles, genotype, phenotype, heterozygous and homozygous. The Design a Stress Ball Kid Lab packet for this lesson includes a data table with lab questions and an instructions packet.
WARNING: If you have a student with an allergy to wheat, then you will have to be very careful. Some people are severely allergic to food products, so much, that even being around the allergen can cause a serious, life-threatening allergic reaction. I have a son with food allergies. My son as outgrown many of them as he has gotten older, but some still persist. At one time, him even being around flour caused him to get hives all over his face and body and I had to give him emergency medication. I learned that I could not have him in the kitchen when I was baking. The flour dust in the air is what triggered his allergic reaction. So, before you do this lab, ask students if anyone has an allergy to wheat (or any other food allergy) and send a note home to all parents to verify this information. With everyone using flour in this lab, the room is sure to have lots of flour dust in the air that students will be breathing in.
If you have a student who is allergic to wheat (I’d say even a little bit allergic) then you might want to use gluten free flour (One that is free of any allergen anyone in your class may have) or have the whole class use rice for making stress balls. I have never heard of anyone having a rice allergy- although it is possible, so still, make sure that whatever you use to make the stress ball, rice or flour, make sure no one has an allergy to any of the ingredients in it. I just wanted to throw this information at you before proceeding, because the health and safety of our students is first and foremost. And if it makes it easier on you, you don’t have to make stress balls at all. Students could always draw out their “kid” on paper and color it. While not as fun, it will pose no risk to anyone in your classes.
What You Will Need to Make These
Flour or rice (rice for those with wheat allergy, or an allergen free flour)
Variety pack of balloons with different colors
Pack of all white balloons
Dry, empty small water bottle or funnel
Plastic knife
Glue dots or double-sided tape (for sticking yarn and other craft material to the stress ball kid face)
Sharpie or another marker that writes on balloons and won’t smudge
Craft eyes (blue, green, brown, black)
Yarn (for hair)
Curly ribbon (This can be used for the curly hair trait)
Pennies, nickels, dimes (one of each for each lab pair)
Any other craft material you can think of to use for the traits
Making Stress Balls
1.Take an empty, dry water bottle (one that squeezes easily) and carefully fill it halfway with flour. Make sure the bottle is completely dry when you fill it flour (or rice).
2. Grab a white balloon and put the opening of the balloon over the mouth of the water bottle.
3. While holding the bottle upright, squeeze the bottle so that air goes inside the balloon, and then keeping a squeeze on the bottle, turn the bottle upside down. Having air in the balloon makes it easier for the flour to enter the balloon as the opening to the balloon will widen. Do not overfill the balloon.
*If using a funnel to get the flour in the balloon, use a plastic knife to guide the flour into the balloon. If you are using uncooked rice for the stress ball, and not flour, the rice should flow through the funnel easily.
6. If you want a squishy stress ball, then fill with less flour. For a firmer stress ball,
use more flour. The same thing applies to using rice.
7. When you have the desired amount of flour or rice in the balloon, tie a knot to seal the opening
of the balloon.
8. Now take the second balloon (the one that will show on the stress ball, the “kid’s” body color)
and cut about ½ an inch from the top of the balloon. You will use this balloon to enwrap the
first balloon, the one that is filled with flour. Place the white balloon (with the flour) inside the
second balloon with the tied-end facing upward like in the picture below. It will be tight and
snug, but don't worry, it will go inside with a few stretches and tugs.
9. The stress ball is now ready to be designed into a “baby” with traits students you get from
the Design a Stress Ball Kid Genetics Lab.
Lab/Activity Procedures
1.Review the basic principles of genetics and how traits are randomly inherited with students.
2. Remind students that the ways a person’s traits are inherited are more complex than this lesson makes it out to be. We use a simple coin toss to show that mom and dad’s alleles both play a role in the offspring’s traits and traits are inherited through various probabilities. In real life, not all traits follow a 50/50 pattern of inheritance. Yes, children inherit 50% of their DNA from each parent, but how these genes interact to create our various phenotypes vary and some traits have a more complex inheritance pattern than other traits.
3. Two students will work together on this activity. One flips the coin to determine the allele from one parent, and another flips the coin to determine the allele from the other parent.
4. Partners will record their data on the data sheet and use the traits guide sheet to help them select their baby’s traits.
5. Once students have completed their data sheet, they will use it to design their "stress ball kid". For fun, don't forget to have your students give their stress ball baby a name. They can write
the name on their data sheet.
Extension
You can also use small craft material instead of rice or flour to make these stress balls. Be creative and find other things to put in them if you want! Have fun with these! I know your kids will!
