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6th grade · Science · Unit 9 of 10

Growing & Reproducing

Flowers, nests, genes, sunlight and copies of parents.

What your child practices

Practices how animal behaviors and plant structures help reproduction, how environment and genes affect growth, and how asexual and sexual reproduction differ.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: MS-LS1-4; MS-LS1-5; MS-LS3-2 · behaviors and structures that help organisms reproduce, what affects growth, and asexual versus sexual reproduction

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Sexual reproduction creates variation in offspring.
  2. Animals use behaviors like songs and bright feathers to attract a mate.
  3. Plants spread seeds in many ways, like hooks that catch on fur.
  4. Traits like size come mostly from genes, but the environment matters too.

Example: Some seeds have hooks that catch on fur. How does this help the plant? Animals carry the seeds away. The seeds land in new places to grow. Answer: it spreads its seeds

Growing & Reproducing in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 9 of 10 in 6th grade Science, after Climate & Climate Change and before Engineering Design.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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 maple seedling grows taller in a sunny clearing than in deep shade. This shows growth is affected by…

    • the color of its leaves
    • the moon
    • only its genes
    • the environment

  2. Question 2

    Apple trees in New York orchards are pollinated mainly by…

    • fish
    • snails
    • bees
    • earthworms

  3. Question 3

    Which factor from the environment affects how tall a plant grows?

    • The plant's name
    • The amount of sunlight
    • The color of the pot
    • Its genes only

  4. Question 4

    A male bird sings and shows bright feathers in spring mainly to…

    • find water
    • attract a mate
    • stay warm
    • scare the sun

  5. Question 5

    Which is an advantage of sexual reproduction?

    • It is always faster
    • It needs only one parent
    • Offspring are exact copies
    • It creates variation in offspring

  6. Question 6

    Growing a new plant from a cutting of a stem is…

    • asexual reproduction
    • sexual reproduction
    • pollination
    • migration

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