• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Inherited and environmental characteristics). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Is this characteristic inherited or environmental: a cat's fur pattern? (inherited (from parents) / environmental (from life)) → inherited (from parents)Prompt: Were you born with it, or did it happen during life?
2. A plant grown in a dark cupboard is tall, thin and pale. Its seeds are planted in sunlight. The new plants are… (pale, because they inherit it / normal and green, because the pale look was caused by the environment / white, because their parent was in the dark / unable to grow) → normal and green, because the pale look was caused by the environmentPrompt: Is being pale passed on in the seeds?
3. Inheritance: which statement is true? (Children are always exact copies of one parent. / Characteristics are passed on in genes. / If a parent loses a finger, its babies are born without that finger. / The language you speak is inherited.) → Characteristics are passed on in genes.Prompt: Which things can be passed on in genes?

• Show a microscope image of cells and ask what students think they are looking at.
• Share the objective: How the environment can change an organism's traits. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Flamingos are born grey. Why do adult flamingos turn pink?
• Step 1: The flamingo's diet, part of its environment, gives it its pink colour.
• Step 2: So the answer is: Pink colours in the shrimps and algae they eat build up in their feathers.
• Answer: Pink colours in the shrimps and algae they eat build up in their feathers.
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Two identical seedlings are grown: one in a sunny spot, one in deep shade. The shaded one is tall, thin and pale. Why? (It inherited different genes. / Shade makes plants healthier. / Lack of light changed how it grew. / It was a different kind of plant.) → Lack of light changed how it grew.Prompt: The seedlings started the same. What was different?
2. Is this trait mostly inherited, or affected by the environment: a flamingo's pink colour? (mostly inherited / affected by the environment) → affected by the environmentPrompt: Was the living thing born with it, or did it come from how it lives?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Is this trait mostly inherited, or affected by the environment: a scar from a fall? (mostly inherited / affected by the environment) → affected by the environmentPrompt: Was the living thing born with it, or did it come from how it lives?
2. Flamingos are born grey. Why do adult flamingos turn pink? (They get sunburnt. / Pink colours in the shrimps and algae they eat build up in their feathers. / Their parents were painted pink. / They paint themselves.) → Pink colours in the shrimps and algae they eat build up in their feathers.Prompt: What do flamingos eat?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-3.