All plants and animals--large, medium, and microscopic--inherit traits from their parents through information in the cells. The modern science and study of heredity is called genetics. The color of your eyes and hair, the shape of your nose, your skin color, and to some degree even the quality of your gestures and movements are inherited traits.
What color are your eyes?
How about your hair? Is it curly, straight, or maybe somewhere in between?
These are examples of traits, and you inherited them from your parents.
All living things have information on how to make them located inside their cells.
For many organisms, half of this information comes from each parent.
You might look a little bit like your mom and a little bit like your dad.
You might look more like one parent than the other ...
or a unique blend of both.
Not all traits are physical; some are aspects of your personality.
Some of these traits can also be learned, not inherited.
These puppies all have the same parents, yet they have many differences and don’t look just like their mom. Why is this?
As you learn more about how traits pass from parents to their babies, or offspring, you will see how these similarities and differences occur.
Reflection
What traits have you inherited?
| Your Responses | Sample Answers |
|---|---|
| Responses will vary. You may have hair like a parent, or you may have inherited hands like your grandmother. Traits are passed down from parents! | |
