The environment of a living organism is its surroundings and the conditions in which it lives.

The lifestyle of a living organism is the things it does and the choices it makes, e.g. diet and exercise.

Some of the offspring's features can be inherited from parents, through the process of reproduction.

Genetic material is a substance in cells that contains instructions for various features and life processes.

Heredity and genetic material

Science

Pupils will learn about sexual reproduction in humans, including the structure and function of the male and female reproductive systems, menstrual cycle, gametes, fertilisation, gestation and birth.

In Year 6, pupils learned that living organisms produce offspring of the same kind, that characteristics are passed from parents to their offspring, and that offspring look similar to their parents and to one another but are not identical to them.

This unit examines the transmission of genetic information through heredity, how scientific methods evolve with new evidence, the importance of publishing and peer review, and the Study of DNA, chromosomes, and genes while developing lab skills focusing on safety.

Heredity and DNA

Subjects which particular individuals may be sensitive to, eg, adoption, migration, bereavement or death, divorce, poverty, deprivation.

Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

The three factors that determine an individual's features are heredity, environment and...

Match the feature to the factor that determines it.

Features carried in the genetic material are {{}} by the offspring.

Which types of factors can be inherited by offspring from their parents?

Choose features that are affected by a combination of heredity and environment/lifestyle.

Which processes are determined by heredity?

What do we call the young of a living organism, produced following reproduction?

Which stage of the life cycle is genetic material passed from the parent to the offspring?

Process of passing genetic features from parent to offspring

Characteristic passed on from parent to offspring.

Match the correct keyword to its definition

The boys inherit features from the dad and the girls from the mum.

Some inherit more features from their mum or dad.

Some inherit features directly from their grandparents.

They all inherit different combinations of features from their mum and dad.

This is an image of siblings. They are all offspring of the same parents. Why do they look similar but not identical?

All offspring {{}} features from both parents.

Content guidance

Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Adult supervision recommended

This lesson will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Heredity and genetic material

Lesson outcome

Content guidance

This lesson will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.