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danblu's picture

Thank you for the response.

Thank you for the response. The textbook I've used (Campbell's 1st Canadian Edition - 2014) actually does make this distinction:

"This law [of independent assortment ] applies only to genes (allele pairs) located on different chromosomes - that is, on chromosomes that are not homologous - or very far apart on the same chromosome." (p. 288, chap. 14- the next chapter discusses the chromosomal basis for genes on the same chromosome independently assorting)

I actually find this particular point to be a really great opportunity to have students apply their knowledge of crossing-over to figure out that we actually do see independent assortment during meiosis II. I ask my class, "can we have independent assortment during meiosis II?" and the answers are split between yes/no. This leads to a discussion. Without considering crossing over, we wouldn't see any effect of independent assortment in meiosis II. But with crossing over, you can! I like how this discussion forces the students to make connections between different topics.

I totally understand the need to simplify and while some may consider this a detail worth skipping, I think it extends the learning process to deeper levels (e.g. higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy). And of course even adding this detail is still simplifying the processes.

Thanks again for sharing your resources and getting us instructors thinking more about pedagogy!

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