Fifth Grade Science: Inherited Traits
Ms. Fidell
Standard 5:
Students will understand that traits are passed from the parent organisms to
their offspring, and that sometimes the offspring may possess variations of these traits that
may help or hinder survival in a given environment.
Objective 1 d:
Using supporting evidence, the students will show that traits are transferred from a parent
organism to its offspring. They will compare and contrast inherited traits with traits and
behaviors that are not inherited but may be learned or induced by environmental factors.
http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/core/corepdf/Scie3-6.pdf
Essential Questions:
1. Do the variations in a species give them an advantage for survival over other individuals
of the same species?
2. How does the environment affect their acquired/behavioral traits?
3. If the environment became warmer, how would if affect your animal?
Materials/Technology Tools:
Internet access, Microsoft PowerPoint/Smilebox.com, encyclopedias, animal reference books,
paper, pencil
SmartBoard (optional)
Lesson Plan:
Build background knowledge:
 Read about inherited traits in species. Discuss the difference in inherited traits versus
acquired/behavioral characteristics. Heredity is the passing on of biological attributes
from one generation to the next, while acquired characteristics are because of the
environment. **Read Scenarios
 Ask which traits they have inherited?
 Ask which traits they have acquired from their environment?
 Discuss with students the various animals’ traits and environments.
 Discuss physical adaptations versus behavioral adaptations.
 Review PowerPoint/Smilebox programs.
 Hand out the Multimedia rubric and “My Favorite Wild Animal” outline worksheet then
discuss, so students know what to produce for a passing grade.
 Students must first do research and fill out their “Favorite Wild Animal” checklist
worksheet.
 Students will create a 10-12 slide PowerPoint presentation (or 8-10 page Smilebox) to
present to class after their research is complete.
Evaluation:
See Rubric
**Scenarios
“Inherited or Acquired Traits”
1. Burt Kromosome has a muscular build like his dad, a former professional
football player. Burt roughhouses with his dad and can beat him at hand
wrestling, but he would rather sit on the couch watching TV and munching
on potato chips. Burt could stand to lose some weight, but he says he’ll
never be out of shape.
2. Jeanie Gene’s mother teaches French and German. Jeanie makes top
grades in both languages, but she has trouble with math. Her parents hired
a tutor, and now she makes the honor roll at school.
My Favorite Wild Animal
Power Point/Smilebox Presentation
Name: _____________________________________
Date:_______________________
1. What is your animal?
2. In what type of environment does it usually live?
3. What are three physical/inherited adaptations the animal has?
A.
B.
C.
4. What does each adaptation help the animal do?
A.
B.
C.
5. What are two acquired/behavioral adaptations?
A.
B.
6. What do these behaviors help the animal do?
7. If the environment became warmer, how would it affect your animal?
Multimedia Project : Inherited Traits Presentation
Student Name: _____________________________________Date:_______________________________
Teacher : ___________________________
CATEGORY
4- Excellent
3- Good
2- Fair
1- Poor
Content
Covers topic indepth with details
and examples.
Subject knowledge
is excellent.
Includes essential
knowledge about the
topic. Subject
knowledge appears
to be good.
Includes essential
information about
the topic but there
are 1-2 factual
errors.
Content is minimal
OR there are several
factual errors.
Organization
Content is well
organized using
headings or bulleted
lists to group related
material.
Uses headings or
bulleted lists to
organize, but the
overall organization
of topics appears
flawed.
Content is logically
organized for the
most part.
There was no clear
or logical
organizational
structure, just lots of
facts.
Originality
Product shows a
large amount of
original thought.
Ideas are creative
and inventive.
Product shows some
original thought.
Work shows new
ideas and insights.
Uses other people's
ideas (giving them
credit), but there is
little evidence of
original thinking.
Uses other people's
ideas, but does not
give them credit.
Mechanics
No misspellings or
grammatical errors.
Three or fewer
misspellings and/or
mechanical errors.
Four misspellings
and/or grammatical
errors.
More than 4 errors in
spelling or grammar.
Attractiveness
Makes excellent use
of font, color,
graphics, effects,
etc. to enhance the
presentation.
Makes good use of
font, color, graphics,
effects, etc. to
enhance to
presentation.
Makes use of font,
color, graphics,
effects, etc. but
occasionally these
detract from the
presentation content.
Use of font, color,
graphics, effects etc.
but these often
distract from the
presentation content.
Oral
Presentation
Interesting, wellrehearsed with
smooth delivery that
holds audience
attention.
Relatively
interesting,
rehearsed with a
fairly smooth
delivery that usually
holds audience
attention.
Delivery not smooth, Delivery not smooth
but able to hold
and audience
audience attention
attention lost.
most of the time.
Requirements
All 10-12 slide
requirements are
met or exceeded.
Most slide
requirements are
met, created 10.
Some slide
requirements were
not completely met,
only 7-9.
Several slide
requirements were
not completely met,
less than 7 slides.
Permissions
All permissions to
use graphics
"borrowed" from web
pages or scanned
from books have
been requested,
received, printed and
saved for future
reference.
All permissions to
use graphics
"borrowed" from web
pages or scanned
from books have
been requested and
received.
Most permissions to
use graphics
"borrowed" from web
pages or scanned
from books have
been requested and
received.
Permissions were
not requested for
several graphics
"borrowed" from web
pages or scanned
from books.