• 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: natural eye colour? (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… (unable to grow / white, because their parent was in the dark / pale, because they inherit it / normal and green, because the pale look was caused by the environment) → 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? (If a parent loses a finger, its babies are born without that finger. / Children are always exact copies of one parent. / The language you speak is inherited. / Some characteristics depend on both genes and environment.) → Some characteristics depend on both genes and environment.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: Variation within a group: read the data. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Most pods were a medium length, with fewer very short or very long ones. What shape does the bar chart have?
• Step 1: Many traits make a hump shape: lots of middle values, few extremes.
• Step 2: So the answer is: high in the middle, low at both ends
• Answer: high in the middle, low at both ends
• 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. Why is variation useful for a group of living things? (It has no use at all. / If conditions change, some individuals may survive better than others. / It makes them all the same. / It stops them from growing.) → If conditions change, some individuals may survive better than others.Prompt: Imagine a cold winter. Would a rabbit with thicker fur have an advantage?
2. Pods from the same kind of pea plant were 6 cm to 10 cm long. What does this show? (The ruler was broken. / All pea pods are identical. / Living things of the same kind vary. / They were different kinds of plant.) → Living things of the same kind vary.Prompt: Are all your classmates the same height?

• 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 7 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. Most pods were a medium length, with fewer very short or very long ones. What shape does the bar chart have? (high in the middle, low at both ends / highest at the right end / the same height everywhere / highest at the left end) → high in the middle, low at both endsPrompt: Where are most of the pods?
2. Why did the class measure lots of pea pods, not just two or three? (Small samples are always exactly right. / To make the peas grow. / Rulers only work with many pods. / A big sample shows the real pattern of variation.) → A big sample shows the real pattern of variation.Prompt: Could two pods show what is most common?

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