Genetics and the passing of traits from parents to children is one of the topics in middle school  and high school science that I’ve often seen students take a personal interest in learning. In the following TED-Ed lesson How Mendel’s Pea Plants Helped Us Understand Genetics, students receive a crash course in heredity, genotypes, and punnett squares through the story of Mendel and his study of peas. The video is embedded below. The full lesson with questions is available here.