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7th grade · Science · Unit 17 of 18

Asexual & Sexual Reproduction

Clones or variety: how reproduction affects offspring and populations.

What your child practices

Practices comparing asexual reproduction (budding, runners, cuttings, splitting) and sexual reproduction (two parents) in plants and animals, how each affects variety in offspring, and why variety matters for a population over time.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 7.13(C) · asexual and sexual reproduction, diversity of offspring, and population change

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Asexual reproduction uses one parent and makes identical offspring: budding, runners, cuttings, splitting.
  2. Sexual reproduction uses two parents, so offspring get a mix of traits.
  3. Variety helps a population survive diseases and changes.

Example: A strawberry plant grows a runner that roots into a new plant. Asexual or sexual? Only one parent plant is involved. The new plant is identical. Answer: asexual

Asexual & Sexual Reproduction in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 17 of 18 in 7th grade Science, after Watersheds & Oceans and before Plate Tectonics.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    Offspring from sexual reproduction are…

    • copies of one parent
    • a mix of traits from both parents
    • always the same as siblings
    • identical clones

  2. Question 2

    A bee carries pollen from one flower to another of the same kind. This helps with…

    • sexual reproduction
    • budding
    • binary fission
    • runners

  3. Question 3

    Which is an advantage of sexual reproduction?

    • It needs no mate
    • Offspring are clones
    • It is always faster
    • Variety helps some offspring survive changes

  4. Question 4

    Bacteria divide in two. This is…

    • meiosis
    • pollination
    • binary fission
    • fertilization

  5. Question 5

    A strawberry plant sends out runners that grow new plants. This is…

    • sexual reproduction
    • fertilization
    • asexual reproduction
    • pollination

  6. Question 6

    Which animal reproduces sexually?

    • A bacterium splitting
    • A hydra budding
    • A planarian splitting
    • A horse

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