Inherited Traits

In grade 3, students engage in games and create different experiments to see how plants both inherit traits from a parent plant as well as are affected by their environment. This lesson and the ongoing observations associated with it address the following Massachusetts State Standards:

• 3-LS3-1 Provide evidence, including through the analysis of data, that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms. 

•  3-LS3-2 Distinguish between inherited characteristics and  those characteristics that result from a direct interaction with the environment. Give examples of characteristics of living organisms that are influenced by both inheritance and the environment.