Lesson video

Hi, I'm Miss Mia, and I'm really looking forward to teaching you this lesson today.

In this lesson today, you will be able to describe what is meant by heredity and why offspring usually looks similar to their parents.

Your keywords are on the screen now, and you can write them down if you'd like to.

So we've got reproduction, offspring, inherit, heredity, variation.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

Reproduction is the process of making offspring.

The offspring of a living organism are the young produced following reproduction.

Offspring inherit a combination of features from both their parents.

Heredity is the process of passing features from individuals to offspring through reproduction.

Differences between individuals of the same species are called variation.

Let's move on.

So this lesson is all about heredity.

We've got three lesson cycles today, and our first lesson cycle is to do with making offspring.

We're then going to be having a look at inherited features.

And lastly, we'll be looking at variation between offspring.

I'm super excited about this lesson.

I hope you are too.

Let's begin.

Reproduction is one of the seven common processes of living organisms.

Can you remember the other six?

Have a think.

So you may have remembered it using the acronym MRS.

GREN.

So we've got movement, reproduction, which is what we'll be looking at today.

S for sensitivity.

G for growth.

R for respiration.

E for excretion, and N for nutrition.

Well done if you've got the other six.

All living organisms reproduce at some point in their life cycle.

So here on the left, we've got the lifecycle of a butterfly, a frog, and we can see here that the purple arrows show growth, and then the pink arrows show where reproduction will have occurred.

Let's have a look at the butterfly lifecycle in more detail.

The butterfly lifecycle starts when an adult male and female butterfly reproduce.

The female then lays the eggs on a plant.

The eggs hatch into caterpillars, otherwise known as larvae, which feed and grow.

Next, the caterpillar forms a pupa, otherwise known as a chrysalis, where it changes into an adult butterfly.

The new adult butterfly then emerges, and the cycle continues.

So the pink arrow points to the stage where the adult butterfly mates and the female lays eggs.

The lifecycle of a frog begins when adult frogs reproduce.

The female lays frogspawn in water.

The frogspawn then hatches into tadpoles, which live in water and breathe through gills.

As they grow, the tadpoles develop legs, and their tails get shorter.

They then become young frogs.

And finally, they grow into adult frogs.

We can see here that the pink arrow from the adult frog to the frogspawn shows where reproduction has happened because the adult frogs produce the frogspawn.

When organisms reproduce, they make offspring of the same kind, species.

The offspring resemble the parents at some point in their lifecycle.

Here we have an image of froglets.

They are the young offspring of a frog.

They grow from frogspawn.

So young daffodils are offspring.

They grow from bulbs produced by daffodils.

Over to you.

I'd like you to match the adult organism with its offspring.

So we've got A, B, and C, and then one, two, and three.

You can pause the video here and click play when you've completed this check for understanding.

So how did that go?

Well, the frog's offspring is a tadpole.

The tree's offspring is a seed or seedling, and the ladybird's offspring is larva.

Well done if you got that correct.

Let's move on.

Task A.

Lucas and Sofia discuss what the puppy of two terriers could look like.

And here on the right, we have an image of two terriers.

Lucas says, "It could look like a Great Dane, because dogs can give birth to any breed of dog.

" Sofia responds, "It will look like a terrier, because terriers can only give birth to terriers.

" One, I'd like you to explain why Sofia is most correct and discuss the correct and incorrect ideas in their answers.

You can pause the video here and click play once you've completed this task.

So how did that go?

Well, let's have a look.

Sofia is the most correct because when organisms reproduce, they make offspring of the same kind.

Lucas is incorrect, as a Great Dane does not resemble a terrier closely.

Two terriers would produce puppies that have similar features to them.

So from Sofia's answers, we understand that offspring inherit features from their parents.

We also know that terriers would produce terrier puppies, not a random breed.

But what is not quite correct in Sofia's answer?

While saying terriers can only give birth to terriers is a bit too simple because puppies can still look a little different from each other.

So what did Lucas get wrong?

Well, dogs cannot give birth to any breed of dog.

A terrier would not suddenly give birth to a Great Dane because a Great Dane is a completely different breed.

Well done for completing this task.

Let's move on.

Now, we're going to be having a look at inherited features.

So on the right here, we have an image of parent geese with their offspring and also parent lions with their offspring.

Offspring looks similar to both of their parents as features have been passed on from both of them.

The offspring have inherited these features.

Heredity is the process of organisms passing on features to their offspring.

Offspring of the same parents are called siblings.

Siblings can look similar, but not identical, to one another as they inherit features from both of their parents.

The exception is identical twins who can look identical to each other.

And here we have an image of cat siblings.

So siblings are not usually identical because each child inherits a different combination of genes.

This is why brothers and sisters can have some features in common, but also many differences.

Can you think of an example?

So I have a sister, and we've both inherited different things from our parents.

I have wavy hair, whereas my sister has straight hair, and she inherited that from my mom.

My dad has wavy hair, so I inherited that from him.

Let's move on.

Back to you.

True or false?

All of a baby's features are inherited from their mother.

Is this true, or is this false?

So pause the video here and click play once you've completed the first part of this check for understanding.

So what did you get?

If you got false, well done.

I'd like you to now justify your answer.

Is it because, A, a baby inherits its features from its mother and grandmother, or B, a baby inherits its features from both of its parents?

What do you think?

You can pause the video here and click play once you've got the answer.

So what did you get?

If you got, B, you are correct.

A baby inherits its features from both of its parents.

Let's move on.

Task B.

Inherited features are visible characteristics or invisible processes that are passed down from parents to offspring.

These are some examples of visible features that can be inherited.

Fur pattern, fur colour, tail length.

Eye colour, ear shape.

A cocker spaniel and a poodle have a puppy.

This is their offspring.

The puppy's breed is called cockapoo.

Explain the features that the cockapoo has inherited from its parents.

You can pause the video here and click play once you've completed this task.

So how did that go?

Well, these are some examples of the features.

Let's have a look.

The cockapoo has inherited short ears from the poodle.

It has inherited its fur color from both of its parents as it is a mix of the cocker spaniel brown and the poodle white.

It has inherited the shape of its eyes from the cocker spaniel.

And lastly, it has inherited its wavy fur from both of its parents.

It is less curly than the poodle but more than the cocker spaniel.

So remember, heredity is the passing on of features from parents to offspring.

Let's move on.

Lesson cycle 3, variation between offspring.

Offspring inherit features from both of their parents.

Each offspring inherits a different combination of features from their parents, except identical twins.

This results in some variation between them.

These cats are siblings.

Explain why they look different.

You can pause the video here.

So you may have said the parents have different fur colours.

One parent may have black fur, the other may have tabby fur or white fur.

The offspring inherit a different combination of fur colors from their parents.

Over to you.

So we have these cows and their siblings.

Explain why they look different.

You can pause the video here and click play once you've completed this question.

So what did you get?

Well, the parents had different fur colours.

One parent may have some white fur, the other parent, brown fur.

One parent may have a pink nose and one a brown nose.

The offspring inherited a different combination of fur and nose colors from their parents.

So remember, inheriting means receiving characteristics from your parents.

In the case of a cocker spaniel and a poodle, their puppies inherit features from both parents.

This means the puppies may get the coat type from one parent, their ear shape from the other, a mix of both parents' size, colour, or behavior.

So, inheriting is the process of passing features from parents to offspring.

Super, let's move on.

Task C.

The family in this picture is made up of a mother, a father, and three biological children.

Harry looks similar but not identical to his sister, Louise.

I'd like you to explain why Harry and Louise do not look identical.

Include the words inherited and offspring in your answer.

You can pause the video here and click play once you've completed this task.

So how did that go?

Well, you may have got something like this.

Harry and Louise are both offspring of the same parent.

They both inherited features from both their parents.

They inherited different features.

So Louise has inherited blonde hair from her mum and curly hair from her dad.

Harry has inherited brown hair from his dad and a straight hair from his mum.

Did you notice anything else?

Well, I noticed that they both have inherited their dad's brown eyes.

Well done for completing this task.

We've now reached the end of this lesson.

Let's summarize our learning.

So this lesson was to do with heredity.

You now understand that reproduction is one of the common processes of living organisms.

All living organisms reproduce at some point in their life cycle and make offspring.

The offspring resemble the parents at some point in their life cycle.

Offspring looks similar to both of their parents as they inherit features from both of them.

This process is called heredity.

Offspring of the same parents are called siblings.

They look similar, but not identical, unless identical twins, to one another as they inherit features from both of their parents.

And lastly, you understand that each offspring inherits a different combination of features from their parents.

Thank you so much for joining me in this lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Bye.