What Is This Unit About?

In Inheritance and Traits, students take on the role of wildlife biologists solving the mystery of why one wolf, called Wolf 44, is similar to the rest of its pack in some ways but different in other ways. Students do investigations and analyze data in order to figure out patterns in traits between parents and offspring. They read books about traits, relatedness, inheritance, and the influence of the environment on traits. Through their investigations and reading, they figure out why Wolf 44 has the fur color, hunting style, and size that it does.

What Science Vocabulary Words Do Students Use?

These are the most important science words that students use throughout the unit. These words are introduced one at a time throughout the unit and not all at once. Getting familiar with these definitions, which are sometimes different from how people use these words in everyday life, may be useful as you support your student’s at-home learning. Your student will have a Glossary that includes these words.

• data: observations or measurements recorded in an investigation

datos: observaciones o mediciones apuntadas en una investigación

• environment: all the living and nonliving things in an area

ambiente: todo (viviente y no viviente) lo que hay en un área

• explanation: a description of how something works or why something happens

explicación: una descripción de cómo algo funciona o por qué algo pasa

• genes: instructions for making a living thing that are in cells and passed from parents to offspring

genes: instrucciones para desarrollar un ser viviente que están en las células y pasan de padres a descendencia

• inherit: to get something that is passed down

heredar: recibir algo que es transmitido de antes

• investigate: to try to learn more about something

investigar: intentar aprender más acerca de algo

• observe: to use any of the five senses to gather information about something

observar: usar cualquiera de los cinco sentidos para recolectar información acerca de algo

• offspring: living things that come from parents

descendencia: seres vivientes que provienen de padres

• organism: a living thing, such as a plant or an animal

organismo: un ser viviente, por ejemplo una planta o un animal

• pattern: something we observe to be similar over and over again

patrón: algo que observamos que sea similar una y otra vez

• reproduce: to make offspring

reproducir: generar descendencia

• species: a group of organisms that are closely related to each other

especie: un grupo de organismos que están cercanamente emparentados entre sí

• trait: something that can be observed about an organism, such as color or size

rasgo: algo que se puede observar acerca de un organismo, como el color o el tamaño

• variation: differences

variación: diferencias

What Do Students Read?

Your student will read these books, which give them a chance to learn about the science concepts in the unit through stories, illustrations and photos, real-world examples, and information about real scientists and engineers. The books help students get more evidence to answer the questions in the unit. Your student does not need to read the books on their own. These books can be enjoyed together, and you can read them multiple times.

*Click for directions to reading the books.

Inheritance and Traits

Questions for At-Home Discussion

Chapter 1

● Let’s think about a pet we have or a friend or neighbor has. What are some traits of that animal?

● I hear you are going to investigate wolves. What do you know about wolves and what do you wonder?

Chapter 2

● Do you think offspring have the same traits as their parents? Why or why not?

● What’s a kind of animal that is common in our neighborhood? What are someways they look different from each other?

Chapter 3

● Imagine there was a dog in our neighborhood that could run very fast. What are some different possible reasons that it could have gotten that trait?

● What have you figured out so far about Wolf 44, its traits, and its pack?

Chapter 4

● What have you learned about how scientists can investigate questions about traits?

● What do you still wonder about how an animal gets its traits?

Amplify Family Resources website:  amplify.com/amplify-science-family-resources-es