Students will be given a family (animal type such as bear, zebra, etc) and given traits from each member (family tree). Name and social traits listed will be given
and students will create their own list of the traits in a chart.

After completing the chart for their “family”, the students will create a “kid” and incorporate the hereditary and social traits.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 5th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Students will learn to crop images to help them visualize and identify physical features that children inherit from parents.

These student-centered stations are set up so students can begin to explore inherited traits. Three of the stations are considered input stations where students are learning new information about inherited traits and four of the stations are output stations where students will be demonstrating their mastery of the input stations.  Each of the stations is differentiated to challenge students using a different learning style.

In this lesson, students observe, identify, and collect data related to several personal traits, apply this knowledge to plants and animals, and discover how some animals use learned behavior to survive. Supplemental resources for this lesson can be found as separate entries in the collection. They are identified as "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior: Name of Resource."

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is the key for the "Alike But Different" activity.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a student handout to be used during the lesson.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a reading selection to be used in the lesson to spark discussion about learned behaviors.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." In this activity, students work collaboratively to research the inherited traits and learned behaviors of a specific animal. This is the sample of a completed project.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." In this activity, students inventory traits that are similar and different to their other classmates.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a performance indicator that can be used to assess student understanding of the concepts addressed by the lesson. In this activity, students will design a new imaginary organism from the traits of two different parents.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a series of images that show a variety of plants. Students will sort them based on observed characteristics/traits.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a slide presentation that provides images of parents and offspring.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a performance task that can be used to assess student understanding of the concepts addressed in the lesson. Students are asked to illustrate and describe how an organism meets its basic needs by relying on a behavior learned in response to living in a certain environment.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a performance task that can be used to assess student understanding of the concepts addressed in the lesson. Students are asked to design an imaginary organism that is the offspring from two different parents, identifying and labeling the traits inherited from each parent.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." In this activity, students will view a slide showing a young plant followed by a slide showing four adult plants. Students will attempt to match the offpsring with the adult plant.

This is a supplemental resource for the lesson: "Investigating Inherited Traits and Learned Behavior." It is a handout that can be used with the activity in which students make observations about three different types of tomatoes.

In this lesson, students will be able to list traits they get from their parents. They will be able to distinguish inherited from acquired ones, especially those relating to health.

Students will observe mealworms and earthworms and then make and record observations about their behavior. Students will differentiate between learned and instinctual/inherited behaviors by observing the worms' actions in a variety of scenarios.

With this resource, students will first read about inherited versus acquired traits then, test their knowledge on these traits.