Higher:
Is able to suggest what the offspring of two 'alien' parents would look like
Middle:
Can identify features a baby has inherited
Lower:
Knows that offspring have characteristics of each parent
Lesson Recap Starter: Think back to the last lesson. How do animals get food?
Lesson Starter: Look at these parents and their offspring. What features are the same and which are different?
Answers:
Offspring can look similar to its parents. This includes breed, the colour of hair, colour of eyes and colour of skin.
Presentation - Starter Slide.
Answer questions and take part in activities during the presentation. Stop the presentation at the relevant slides: Talk Partners; AfLs; Songs. Take part in the Choral Response Questions activity (see Assessment section) after the Keywords/Rocket Words slide.
Key Concept:
During this unit, each lesson contains a key concept question housed in the '30 Second Challenge' slide. To help children master this content so the knowledge moves from their short term memory to their long term memory, at the beginning of the follow on lesson the question from the previous lesson is revisited.
The questions covered during this unit include:
1. What are the four things animals need to survive and grow?
2. Where do birds live? Where do birds build their homes? What do birds make their homes from?
3. How do animals get food?
4. How do adults help a newborn baby?
5. Give an example of an amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal.
6. What would happen if an animal ate the wrong type of food?
Presentation
Expert Film: Dog trainer Alison Burns, explains how her cross-breed dog takes features from both her parents.
How we deliver the Gatsby Benchmarks:
2 - Learning from career and labour market information: Pop along to Developing Experts career’s zone to find out about jobs in your area.
4 - Linking curriculum learning to careers: This unit showcases careers in the people who work with animals. Access our 360° virtual work tours.
7 - Encounters with Further and Higher Education: Pop along to Developing Experts career’s zone to find out about training providers in your area.
Presentation - Expert Film.
Option 1: Monster Breeding
Using the handout the children draw what they think the offspring of the 'mummy' and 'daddy' monster will look like.
Explain to the children that they should include features from both the 'mummy' and 'daddy' monster but they don't have to include every feature.
To challenge them, the second page gives which specific traits they must include in the baby monster design.
Option 2: Building a Bird's Nest
Watch the mission assignment film to help you understand how to build a bird's nest from material in your classroom or in the school garden.
Monster Breeding
Handout
Building a Bird's Nest
Sticks
Leaves
Straw
String etc.
Quiz
With their talk partners, the children are to go through the quiz at the end of the presentation and answer the questions.
How baby animals similar to their parents?
What happens when different dogs breed?
N/A
Babies come from...
... a mummy and daddy.
The Science Behind the Science
Offspring look like their parents due to genetics. Egg cells from the mother and sperm cells from the father (known as gametes) both contain half of the parent's DNA. This means that each gamete has 23 chromosomes. When the sperm cell fertilises the egg cell, the two halves come together to make a complete set of 46 chromosomes. Offspring may not always look half like the mother and half like the father, though.
A monk named Gregor Mendel did a series of experiments with peas to investigate this phenomenon. He discovered that some genes are dominant, and some genes are recessive. Dominant genes are more likely to show in the offspring than recessive genes, but if two parents have the same trait in a recessive gene, it becomes more likely to show in the offspring. Recessive genes are often the ones that appear to 'skip' generations.
Describe and compare the structure and needs of a variety of common animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including pets).
The study of the characteristics, systems, and behaviours of humans and other animals, and of plants; the interactions and relationships between and among them, and with the environment.
The Australian Curriculum - Comparing the needs of plants and animals
Identifying and classifying
Grade 2 - Animal Life
Know the common animals and plants around you & can briefly describe their main external characteristics.