Hello, my name is Mrs. Mehrin and I am really looking forward to learning all about inherited characteristics with you.

Let's begin.

Welcome to today's lesson from the unit "Evolution and Inheritance".

Your learning outcome today is, "I can identify inherited and environmental characteristics of different offspring." Now, I know that learning can sometimes be a little bit challenging, but that's okay because it just means that we are going to work really hard together and learn lots of fabulous new things.

Let's begin.

So here are your five key words for today's lesson.

Now, I am going to refer to these words throughout today's lesson, so you don't need to pause the video and jot them down unless it really does help you.

So if you find that it helps you, you may pause the video now and have a go at writing these down.

Fabulous, well done.

And here are the definitions for those keywords.

Again, if you'd like, you can pause the video and write these down.

However, I will be referring to these throughout today's lesson.

And if you find that it helps to have these written down, you can pause the video now and have a go at doing that.

Fabulous, well done.

Now, here are your lesson outlines for today, and we've got two parts to our lesson.

Let's begin with the first one, inheritance.

Now Izzy has been looking at family photos and this is a picture of Izzy's family.

And Izzy says, "There are two generations of my family in this picture; my parents and their children." And she's noticed that there are lots of similarities in her family members' physical characteristics.

What similarities can you see? I'll give you five seconds to have a look and see if you can spot any similarities.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So Izzy says, "My sister and I both have curly hair like my dad.

Mine is a very similar colour to his and my sister's hair is a more similar colour to my mom's.

My skin colour is also very similar to my dad's and my nose shape is the same shape as his." Now, did you notice any other similarities? I'll give you five seconds to have another look and see if you can spot any others.

Off you go.

Fantastic, well done.

Now when living things reproduce, they pass their characteristics onto their offspring.

Now this is called inheritance.

These rabbits have inherited characteristics from their parents.

Now, have you ever heard the word inheritance used before? I'll give you five seconds to think about whether or not you might have heard of that word previously.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So sometimes the word 'inheritance' is used to describe money or belongings that are passed from one family member to another when they die.

And humans are the only living things that do this.

Now in science, we use it to mean just the inherited characteristics that are passed from one generation to another.

Now this kind of inheritance happens when living things reproduce.

So let's do a quick check-in of your learning so far, it says, "What is the name for the process of passing on physical features from one generation to another through reproduction?" Is it A, offspring? B evolution, C adaptation, or D inheritance? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

The answer is inheritance.

Now, often we can observe the inheritance of some physical characteristics across many generations.

Now, can you see any characteristics that have passed from Izzy's grandparents' generation all the way through to hers? So we've got Izzy's grandparents here, Izzy's father, and Izzy and her sister.

So I'll give you five seconds to have a look at these pictures and see if you can notice any characteristics that are passed from Izzy's grandparents' generation all the way through to her and her sister's generation.

Okay, off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So Izzy says, "My dad has inherited his curly hair from my grandparents.

Then my sister and I inherited our curly hair from him." And Izzy's father says, "We have both inherited your grandma's nose too." Now let's have a quick check-in of your learning.

It says, inherited characteristics can be passed from one something to another.

What is that something? Is it A, observation B, reproduction, C, generation or D, offspring? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

It's generation.

Now, here is your first task for today.

It says, carefully observe Alex's family tree and his comments.

Explain which characteristics Alex and his sisters have inherited from their parents and grandparents.

So Alex says, "Me, Sally, my dad and my grandparents all have blue eyes.

Mom and Jade both have brown eyes.

Me, Jade, and my mom also have freckles." So you are going to explain which characteristics Alex and his sisters have inherited from their parents and grandparents.

Off you go.

Fantastic, well done.

So let's see.

It says here, "Alex's granddad has curly hair which has been passed on to Andy and then Alex.

He needs glasses to improve his vision, a characteristic which he may have inherited from his grandparents and parents.

He has freckles which he has inherited from his mum.

His eyes are blue like his father's and grandparents'." So lots of inherited characteristics there all the way from the grandparents' generation all the way through to Alex and his sister's generation.

Now, Jade inherited her ginger hair and freckles from her mum.

She has brown eyes which she has also inherited from her mum.

Her eyesight needs glasses to correct it, which is a characteristic she may have inherited from her dad.

Sally has inherited her blonde hair colour and blue eyes from her dad.

Her hair is straight, which could have been inherited from her mother or her grandmother.

Now this is really interesting because as I was growing up, I got told that I looked exactly like my grandmother.

However, as I've gotten older, some people say I also look like my mum.

So with inherited characteristics, you can gain different characteristics from different people.

It doesn't always have to be the same person.

For example, Sally, who's inherited blonde hair and blue eyes from her dad, but has inherited other characteristics from her mother or her grandmother.

So that's really interesting because you can have a mix of characteristics from lots of different generations there.

Now we are on to the second part of your learning, which is inherited and environmental characteristics.

So Aisha has been thinking about the characteristics of people in her family.

So here are Aisha's parents and Aisha.

She says, "I've inherited my skin colour and my wavy black hair from my mother.

Our noses are the same shape too." She says, "My mum also has a nose piercing.

Will I inherit this and grow a hole in my nose when I'm older?" What do you think? Do you think Aisha will grow a hole in her nose when she's older? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So not all of our features are inherited characteristics.

Only some types of physical features are inherited from earlier generations, and these are usually the physical features that we are born with.

So inherited characteristics include height, hair, eye and skin colour.

Hair, texture, so if it's straight, wavy, curly, also if it's finer or thicker, the shape of faces and features, our blood type.

Now do you know any other characteristics which living things can inherit from their parents? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic, well done.

So interestingly, one thing that you may inherit, and this was some scientific research that was done, is your intelligence as well.

So yes, you know you can study really hard and that's really important to always study really hard and learn lots of new things.

However, intelligence can also be an inherited characteristic.

And when they did some research, some scientific research into this, they found that children often inherited their intelligence from their mother.

Now, characteristics that we gained during our lifetime or that change are natural appearance are not inherited from previous generations.

So for example, Aisha will not inherit her mother's nose piercing because her mother chose to get it and she was not born with it.

So the only way that Aisha will also get her nose piercing is if she chooses herself to get her nose pierced, but it won't automatically, just her nose will not automatically just grow a hole.

Now let's do a quick check-in of your learning.

Which of these are inherited characteristics? Is it A, a shaved head, B, hair colour, C, eye colour, D pierced ears, or E, colourful nail varnish? So I'm going to give you five seconds to think about your answer.

If you think you need longer, you can pause the video here.

Off you go.

Fantastic, well done.

So hair colour and eye colour are inherited.

Everything else is a choice that somebody has made.

So they've chosen to shave their head or pierce their ears or wear colourful nail, the nail varnish.

Now, characteristics that are not inherited from a parent are called environmental characteristics.

Now, environmental characteristics are not passed down through generations.

So for example, this white flower has been dyed by a florist so it has colourful petals.

Now what colour do you think the petals of its offspring will be? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, so the plant inherited white flowers from its parent plant.

So the new colours are an environmental characteristics because the florist has dyed the petals.

So they're not going to be inherited by its offspring.

Its offspring will have white flowers, which was the natural colour that the plant inherited from its parent plant.

Now, environmental characteristics include fashion choices, muscle tone, abilities such as swimming, sports or drawing, accents, hair length, dyed hair, piercings.

Now, do you know any other environmental characteristics which living things have not inherited from their parents? So I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So you might have said things like the way that you walk or the way that you laugh, all of those can be environmental characteristics.

Now, which of these are environmental characteristics? Is it A, pale skin colour? B, dyed purple hair, C, curly hair, D, above average height, or E, Welsh accent? So again, I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So the answers are B and E.

You can't, you all can't inherit those.

Those are environmental characteristics.

So Alex and his sisters have been talking about inherited and environmental characteristics.

So Alex says, "I need glasses like dad.

Is that an inherited characteristic?" Sally says, "We all need glasses.

I think we've all inherited that trait from dad." and Jade says, "You didn't need them when you were born and you have chosen a different style of glasses to dad.

So I think it's an environmental characteristic." Now, what do you think? Who do you think might be right? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So having eyesight that needs glasses is sometimes an inherited characteristic.

So often people don't need glasses when they're born, but their vision changes over time as they grow perhaps in the way it did for their parents.

And people can choose their own style of glasses, use contact lenses or get corrective surgery so that they may not look the same as their parents.

So for example, my daughter got glasses last week.

Now her dad also wears glasses, whereas I don't need them and neither does my older daughter, but she has inherited her eyesight from her dad.

Now she's only five years old, and she's only just got them.

Now, she may have needed them when she was a baby as well, but when you go to the optician, they do tests, for example, they'll get you to read some letters to see whether or not you can see them.

So sometimes if you're a baby, you might get glasses because they can do certain tests to see whether you need them.

But with hers, she doesn't have a lot of (indistinct) she doesn't have really, really bad eyesight.

So therefore we didn't actually pick it up until she turned five and could start reading letters.

And we took her to the optician and then we noticed that she needed them.

So sometimes you might see babies with glasses, but sometimes they might need to be a little bit older before they can do the test in order to get them.

Now, true or false? Environmental characteristics are passed on from one generation to another.

Is that true or false? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

The answer is false.

Now let's see if you can justify your answer.

Is it because A, only inherited characteristics are passed on through generations? Or B, no characteristics are passed on through generations? Again, I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

The answer is A.

Now here is task B.

It says sort the following characteristics according to whether they are inherited or environmental.

So you've got things like blue hair, straight hair, the style of glasses, photography skill, light brown skin, dark brown eyes, and pierced ears.

So you're going to sort them into a table like this one.

So I want you to pause the video here and have a go at doing this activity.

Okay, so here are the answers.

Straight hair, light brown skin, and dark brown eyes would go in the inherited characteristics because those are the things that you were born with, that you've inherited from your parents.

Environmental characteristics that you may not have inherited from your parents or grandparents or your other, any other ancestors are things like blue hair, the style of glasses, photography skill, and pierced ears.

So all of these things are choices that you make.

So remember, eyesight can be inherited, but the style of glasses you choose are not inherited.

That's a choice that you make along with the others in the environmental characteristics.

Now your second task is to identify three inherited and three environmental characteristics of either yourself or Alex.

So I will give you some time now.

I want you to pause the video here and have a go at doing this activity.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

So John says, "My skin colour, my height, and my black hair are inherited characteristics." So he's got them either from his grandparents or his parents, or maybe even earlier generations.

"My favourite colour, my choice of hairstyle and my skill at painting are environmental characteristics." Alex says, "My ginger hair, my freckles, and the shape of my face are inherited characteristics." Those things that he got from previous generations.

"My skill at dancing, my clothing preferences, and having a short haircut are environmental characteristics." So those are choices that he's made or things that he's put effort into.

For example, his skill at dancing in order to become good at it.

Now we are on to the summary of our learning and it says, "When living things reproduce, they pass on characteristics to their offspring.

This is known as inheritance.

Inherited characteristics such as eye colour, height, skin colour, and hair colour are passed from one generation to another.

Environmental characteristics are ones which are not passed down from parent to child, such as clothing choices, favourite things, and learned skills like swimming." Well done for today.

You've worked really hard.

I'm really proud of your fantastic work that you have produced today and all of the wonderful learning that you have done.