Fun Zipper Pouches, Paper Party Supplies, and More, Handmade and Curated in Montclair, NJ by Claire Cohen.
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Plush Chromosomes Project

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Back in May I answered a call for help on the Montclair Watercooler Facebook Group for someone to replicate a plush chromosome doll. A Montclair High School science teacher was the author of the post and I quickly replied for more information. We soon met up at a local coffee shop and discussed the project which would be due after the new school year began in the fall.

I was tasked with creating 3 matching pairs of chromosomes, each pair a different size, small, medium, and large, with velcro attached so they can be separated. These teaching tools are useful for explaining how chromosomes work and one of the requests for the new pairs was to add stripes that would represent the alleles.

This picture shows the original plush chromosome I had to recreate on the right in blue and my first prototype which took 7 attempts to perfect the funky shape!

The next step was to sort out the stripes. I chose EcoFelt in a variety of colors and we met again to finalize the arrangements after I created a striped prototype in the large size.
              
 
Once I had the large pair finished I needed to resize the pattern which I did on my printer by reducing it incrementally. This worked perfectly for the medium and small patterns!
                   
                   
Unfortunately for me I didn't quite understand the science behind the project and made 2 of the pairs in blue. Each pair had to be the same colors! I remade them and handed over the final project just in time for that unit to begin. This was a fun experience, a lot of work and challenging, and useful in a great way!


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  • Page on

    Hello! I’m a graduate student in genetic counseling and have been looking for chromosome models that would help clients I counsel understand basic genetics and how inheritance works. I love these and I’d like to purchase a set! Can you let me know if you are interesting in making more? Thanks!

  • Michele on

    How can I purchase a few of these?


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