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3rd grade · Science · Unit 5 of 8

Traits & Variation

Traits come from parents, and the environment matters too.

What your child practices

Practices how plants and animals inherit traits from their parents, how traits vary within a family, and how the environment can change traits like size or health.

Alaska content standards learning standard: 3-LS3-1; 3-LS3-2 · traits are inherited from parents, vary within a group, and can be influenced by the environment

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Inherited traits come from parents, like eye color or hair type.
  2. Brothers and sisters can have different traits.
  3. The environment can change traits too, like a plant growing short with little water.

Example: A dog has spots like its mother. Is that inherited or from the environment? It came from a parent. Answer: inherited

Traits & Variation in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 5 of 8 in 3rd grade Science, after Speed & Motion and before Surviving in a Habitat.

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: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

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

    Sunflowers in a field are different heights. This shows…

    • they are not plants
    • they are rocks
    • variation
    • they are the same

  2. Question 2

    A dog that eats too much becomes heavy. Its weight is affected by…

    • its name
    • inheritance only
    • the environment
    • its fur color

  3. Question 3

    Which is a learned behavior, not inherited?

    • A dog sitting on command
    • A dog's tail shape
    • A dog's eye color
    • A dog's fur type

  4. Question 4

    Where do puppies get their fur color from?

    • Their parents
    • Their food
    • The weather
    • Their toys

  5. Question 5

    A plant grows short because it got little sunlight. This trait was affected by…

    • the moon
    • the environment
    • its parents only
    • magic

  6. Question 6

    Scientists measure leaf length on 20 plants and find many sizes. They are studying…

    • erosion
    • magnetism
    • variation
    • weather

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