This document discusses heredity and genetics. It explains that genes on chromosomes control traits that are passed from parents to offspring. The study of how traits are inherited is called genetics. Gregor Mendel was the first to use mathematics to explain heredity and track traits over generations. He discovered that traits can be dominant or recessive. A Punnett square can predict an offspring's traits based on the parents' alleles. Genotype refers to an organism's genetic makeup, while phenotype describes how it looks and behaves based on its genes.