When kids are asked, “What is your favorite subject in school?” the answer science rarely seems to come up. That’s not surprising because science is a hard subject, but it can also be fun.

Over the past two weeks, the seventh graders at Tripp Middle School have been studying genetics and heredity. As a fun and engaging activity to go along with heredity, the science teachers thought up Ninsects. How it works, is each student picks certain traits that their “Ninsect” (a made-up bug) will have. Then, they mate with another Ninsect in the class and have to figure out what the offspring will look like.

“This was an intriguing and hands-on activity that really helped us understand and learn about heredity more in-depth.” said one seventh grade student at Tripp. After each student mated and created their offspring, we found out that there was a little twist. If neither the mother or father had a chitin, or an exoskeleton, the baby died at birth. Over half of our class had Ninsect babies that didn’t make it. This showed us that heredity can really effect peoples lives by the way that genes are passed down. This activity had every student involved and fascinated. Finally, science is becoming fun again!