• 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… (white, because their parent was in the dark / unable to grow / 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? (A scar is an environmental characteristic. / If a parent loses a finger, its babies are born without that finger. / The language you speak is inherited. / Children are always exact copies of one parent.) → A scar is an environmental characteristic.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: Continuous and discontinuous variation. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Is this continuous or discontinuous variation: height?
• Step 1: Continuous variation can take any value in a range, so it is measured.
• Step 2: So the answer is: continuous
• Answer: continuous
• 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. Is this continuous or discontinuous variation: Rhesus blood type (positive or negative)? (continuous / discontinuous) → discontinuousPrompt: Can it have any value, or only a few set categories?
2. Five students measured their heights in cm: 167, 161, 177, 153, 148. What is the range of their heights, in cm? → 29 cmPrompt: The range shows how spread out the data are.

• 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 8 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. Height data for a large group of adults usually form which shape when plotted? (a bell-shaped curve (normal distribution) / two separate bars / a flat line / a straight rising line) → a bell-shaped curve (normal distribution)Prompt: Most people are near the middle; few are very tall or very short.
2. Five students measured their heights in cm: 180, 159, 175, 158, 146. What is the range of their heights, in cm? → 34 cmPrompt: The range shows how spread out the data are.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-6.