Who is this game for?	Anyone age over 9 years, ideally 10-15 years of age.
	What does it cover?	Curriculum for Excellence 2.14b, 3.14b, 4-14c, 4-20a Each parent having two copies of each gene and handing one copy on to their baby each. Dominant and recessive genes: but without using those techinical terms. The children see that some genes win and some lose. PGD - pre-implantation genetic diagnosis - designer babies. Choosing not to pass on a faulty gene. Topical science, genetic technology and impact on modern life
	How long will it take to make and play?	10-15 minutes, twice that to make say six sets. 10-20 minutes to play.

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How to play You can give the class printed instructions, but it may work better if you demonstrate yourself how the game works, or show them the video. Set out all the gene cards face down (with the genes & values facing downwards). Put all the genes from the mum together and sort them into pairs for hair genes, eye genes etc. Do the same for Dad's genes Decide which characteristic you will find out about first, e.g. hair or health. Choose one card at random from the mum’s two genes for e.g. hair, and one from the two dad’s genes for hair. Compare the two genes. Which one has a higher score? As in Top Trumps, the gene with the higher score wins. This gene goes onto the recipe genes board. The gene that loses goes onto the hidden genes board. Repeat this again for another gene e.g. eyes. Carry on until the recipe and hidden gene boards are full.

When completed, the recipe gene board shows you what your baby will be like. The hidden board shows the genes the baby will carry unseen but can pass on to its children.

Time to cheat! How might they/you cheat if they wanted a baby with particular characteristics like blue eyes? Children are good cheats and should quickly realise that they could turn over the cards to see what gene their baby is getting, and reject it if they don't want that one.

Now each group choose just one gene on either board that you would like to change. Think carefully which gene is the most important gene to change in your opinion and why.

Use the Draw a baby sheet and to fill in the details of your baby according to the recipe board. Colour the eyes, hair and clothes etc.

This is a good time to mention the real technology that exists to 'cheat' and look at a gene in a very early embryo.

PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis) allows scientists to look at the recipe and hidden genes of a very early embryo. Using IVF techniques, an egg and sperm are put together in a petri dish, grow into an early embryo (8 or 16 cells).

One cell is removed from this embryo and genetic tests are carried out on that cell to examine its DNA, and thus the DNA of the embryo. This allows the parents and scientists to choose the genes that the baby will carry, for example, to choose whether they carry a fatal disease or not.

Summing up

You can discuss with the children what benefits cheating like this might bring in real life, and also what disadvantages?

What ethical angles can they think of? It might be wise to mention that some religious groups have ethical concerns that by choosing which embryos to use, you discard those emryos that you don't want to use.

Use the 'pros and cons' game to sort out the opinions.

Genes vs. environment? You could also discuss whether they think taste in music could really be genetically inherited? If a mum likes Rod Stewart, might she really pass this onto to her children? What other methods of passing on taste are there - discuss cultural transmission of 'taste'. Growing up surrounded by a culture in the home, like your mum playing her CDs when you were a child or baby, or the music you hear on the TV.

In reality, taste in music is much like learning a language, it is mostly formed by the sounds we hear around us as we grow up. However, there may be some genetic inheritance in the ability to play and understand music. More information on the genetics of musical ability here.

Next steps

You could do the diamond nine discussion activity to get the kids talking about when they think PGD technology should be used or not, and which potential uses of PGD they think are important.

Look at the case stories of real families that have used the PGD technology.

You could then go back to the diamond nine boards and see if they would like to change their mind about anything now they have heard the case stories.

How to make the game

This is game for a single person or a group of two, three or four people. If a whole class are to play it at once you will need to print out several sets of cards, game boards and Draw a baby end sheets.

First print out a set of game boards one set for each group.

Then print out the mum and dad’s gene card sheets. Ideally, print them onto different colours of paper, e.g. pink or red for the mum and blue for the dad.

Glue the front of the card sheet on to the reverse of the card sheet, a glue stick works well. The two pieces of paper, front and reverse, should align perfectly. Cut the individual cards out. You should have 20 cards, 10 cards from the mum and 10 cards from the dad.

Finally print out the Draw a baby sheet, one for each person.

Each group gets two boards (a recipe genes board and hidden genes board), 20 genes cards, and a Draw a baby sheet each.

Warning

This game uses the genetics of cystic fibrosis to demonstrate how a gene for an illness can be inherited and also how it can be carried without making the person ill. You may feel this illness is not appropriate to use in your particular class.

Other illnesses that are inherited in the same way, and could be substituted into the game are sickle cell disease, phenylketonuria, galactosemia. Or you could use a fictional illness and the same point scoring system. If you want to change the illness, you will need to adjust the parent gene cards and the design a baby end sheet which are both Word documents.