Punnett Squares
Fill in Punnett squares and predict traits in pea plants and mice.
Punnett Squares builds genetics from the ground up. Level 1 covers the words: genotype and phenotype, dominant and recessive, homozygous and heterozygous. Children apply them to pea plants with purple or white flowers and to mice with black or brown fur. Once the words feel familiar, they read a square and say which genotype a box shows.
From there children fill in a missing box or parent letter, count how many boxes show a trait, and write genotype and phenotype ratios and percent chances. Harder questions work backward from the offspring to the parents. The last level uses 16-box squares for two genes at once, including the classic 9:3:3:1 pattern.
What children practice
- Use genotype, phenotype, dominant and recessive correctly
- Read the boxes of a Punnett square
- Fill in a missing box or a missing parent allele
- Write genotype and phenotype ratios as numbers and percents
- Predict the cross that made a set of offspring
- Work with 16-box squares for two genes at once
Levels
- Level 1: Genetics words
- Level 2: Read the boxes
- Level 3: Fill the square
- Level 4: Counts and ratios
- Level 5: Predict the cross
- Level 6: Two genes at once
How it works
- Six levels move from vocabulary to two-gene squares.
- Each level opens once your child has answered five correctly and practiced for a minute or two.
- If an answer is wrong, a try again message lets your child pick another.
- Questions can be read aloud, and every correct answer includes a short explanation.
Best for: A good fit for grades 7 to 10 when students are first meeting Mendelian genetics or want more practice before a test.
Tip for parents: Flip two coins together and treat heads and tails as the two alleles from each parent. Doing a few rounds shows why the same cross can give different offspring but a steady pattern over many tries.
Questions parents ask
Which traits appear in Punnett Squares?
Most examples use pea plants, with flower color, seed shape, seed color, plant height and pod color. One trait is black or brown fur in mice. These match the classic examples that students often see in class.
Does the game include dihybrid crosses?
Yes. Level 6 uses squares with 16 boxes for two genes at once. Students count boxes with a given look, give the phenotype ratio, find the chance of an offspring, and list the possible gametes of a parent.
Does my child have to do the whole square by hand?
The answers are multiple choice, and the square is already drawn. Children fill in one missing part, read a box or compare counts. That lets them concentrate on the reasoning of heredity without copying out grids.
Ready to try it?
Punnett Squares is free with a parent account. A parent adds a child profile, and the child's progress is saved.