KS3 & KS4 science curriculum

This unit builds on pupils’ prior learning from DNA and the genome, where they explored the structure and function of DNA in carrying genetic information. It deepens their understanding by examining how inheritance, genotype, and phenotype influence traits, and how genetic information is passed from parents to offspring. This prepares pupils for the next unit, Cell division: mitosis and meiosis, where they will apply their knowledge of inheritance to understand how cells divide and how genetic variation arises, further reinforcing the principles of heredity and variation.

1. Alleles, genotype, and phenotype
2. Models of single-gene inheritance: Punnett squares
3. Models of single-gene inheritance: family tree diagrams
4. Explaining inheritance: Mendel and beyond
5. The inheritance of biological sex and sex-linked genetic disorders

• Genetic material stored in cells provides instructions for growth and other life processes.
• The genetic material of all organisms is made of a chemical substance called DNA.
• Some of an organism’s characteristics are determined only by instructions in its genome (e.g. eye colour).
• Most of an organism’s characteristics are influenced by the organisms’ genome and interaction with its environment.
• Humans and plants can reproduce sexually to have offspring that inherit some, but not all, of the characteristics of the parents.
• During sexual reproduction, male and female gametes fuse in process called fertilisation.