KS3 ~ Year 8 ~ Variation

This lesson is designed for the KS3 Year 8 Science course, specifically the B2 1.3 unit on Adaptation & Inheritance.

For more lessons designed for KS3 and KS4 please visit my shop at: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience.

The lesson begins with an introduction to variation and what it means to belong to a species. Students will then be shown images of four different people and will be asked to note down the ways in which the people are different from one another and why.

This will lead into the next PowerPoint slide which shows images of characteristics which are inherited - lobed/lobeless ears, eye colour, natural hair colour. Students can make a note of these in their books as examples. Next, students will be shown images of characteristics which could be due to the environment - weight, tattoos/scars, piercings, strength.

Students will now focus on inherited variation, they will be asked to think about their own characteristics and then compare this to a family member - parents/grandparent. Students should then complete a mind map of the characteristics they have inherited from different people, e.g. I have inherited my eye colour from my Dad. If complete, there is an ‘extra challenge’ question for students to consider why they are not identical to either one of their parents.

Next, students will be shown examples of environmental factors which lead to certain types of environmental variation. For example, where you grow up and the football team you support. Students will then need to complete a task which requires students to match the correct environmental factor with the correct type of environmental variation. This task can then be marked and assessed using the mark scheme provided once complete.

The last task requires students to consider a world in which there is no variation, where everyone looked the same as one another. Students will then need to describe the advantages and disadvantages of this world and explain whether it would be a world they would like to live in.

The plenary task requires students to spend a minute talking the person next to them about what they have learned this lesson.

All resources are included at the end of the presentation. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)