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7th grade · Science · Unit 14 of 16

Species & Hybrids

What makes a species, and what happens when two kinds breed.

What your child practices

Practices what a species is, what viable offspring are, and hybrids such as mules, ligers, grolar bears and hybrid crops.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.14 · breeding technologies that change the traits of plants and animals

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A species is a group that can breed and have viable offspring, young that can have young of their own.
  2. A hybrid comes from two different species or varieties, like a mule from a horse and a donkey.
  3. Hybrid crops cross varieties to get useful traits.

Example: Mules usually can’t have young. What does that tell us about horses and donkeys? Their offspring are not viable. So they are not one species. Answer: they are separate species

Species & Hybrids in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 14 of 16 in 7th grade Science, after Asexual & Sexual Reproduction and before Natural Selection.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A hybrid is the offspring of…

    • two identical twins
    • two different species or varieties
    • one plant only

  2. Question 2

    Why do scientists group living things into species?

    • To describe and organize the variety of life
    • To rename animals every year
    • To decide who is the strongest

  3. Question 3

    A liger is the offspring of a…

    • male lion and female tiger
    • cow and a horse
    • wolf and a fox

  4. Question 4

    Hybrid corn is made by…

    • crossing two different varieties of corn
    • freezing the seeds
    • painting the corn

  5. Question 5

    A grolar bear (or pizzly bear) comes from a…

    • black bear and a panda
    • polar bear and a grizzly bear
    • moose and a bear

  6. Question 6

    Which is an example of a plant hybrid?

    • A cross between two kinds of apple trees
    • A wolf and a flower
    • A tree and a rock

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