If I could go back in time and help myself about something, it would be Punnett Squares and Gregor Mendel. I found this very confusing before and there are some things I would like to clarify with my past self.

First off, I would tell her that Punnett Squares are not as difficult as I though they were. To clarify even more, I would tell her to think of plotting points on graph paper to find which points go in which quadrant of the graph.Then, just match up the alleles above the first square and next to the first square to have my alleles that would be possible for my offspring. I would also tell my past self to just think about how things would match up in the Punnett Square. I would say that if the two parents are homozygous dominant for something, the child can't be homoszygouse recessive, because none of the alleles would match up in a Punnett Square that would make that true.

Also, I would tell myself that Mendel was breeding these pea plants by taking pollen from each plant and mixing them to make different offspring. Pollen is gametes, so this is kind of like sexual reproduction. I did not understand what Mendel was doing when I first read it in out books, but now I understand Mendell's purpose for breeding these pea plants. He was curious of what the outcome of the offspring would be with all of the different combinations of pea plant parents.

An experiment that really helped me realize this was the pea soup experiment on the computer. Looking at the different alleles and traits of each pea really helped me understand the concept of genetics and the breeding that I mentioned before.

Below is an example of one of the possibilities of breeding two peas: