Heredity & Genetics Differentiated Unit Planning Guide

About Unit Planning

This unit planning guide is paced for classrooms with four, six or seven 45-minutes science classes per week. The unit considers that the
typical school year is 36 weeks or 180 days in the United States.

5E Lesson Model
Unit planning considers the 5E teaching model. The following resources are useful in attaining the five components of the 5E model:
1. Engage: Bell Ringers
2. Explore: SNAPs Lab Activities, INB Activities (student-led activities)
3. Explain: INB Notes and PowerPoint Presentation (teacher-led activities), Reading Passages (student-led activity)
4. Elaborate: SNAPs Lab Synthesis Project
5. Evaluation: INB Quizzes, INB Reflections, Homework (formative or summative), Unit Exams (summative)

Lesson Plan Structure

• Lesson are planned and paced for a 45-minute class period.
• The lessons include a teacher-directed and student-directed activity. Lessons also include an engagement, reflection and homework
assignment to provide a comprehensive and balanced approach to studying science concepts.

Lessons follow this general structure:

1. Warmup (5 minutes) Students complete a bell ringer to engage and focus them at the beginning of the lesson.
2. Teacher-Directed Activity (10-15 minutes) Teacher clarifies misconceptions and solidifies understanding of concepts.
a. PowerPoint Slides with student scaffolded notes OR
b. Interactive Notebook Input Notes
3. Student-Directed Activity (15-20 minutes) Students work on an independent or small group activity.
a. Interactive Notebook Activity
4. Wrap-Up and Reflection (5-10 minutes) Students complete a lesson-based formative and/or summative assessment.
a. INB Quiz AND/OR
b. INB Reflection
5. Homework (15-20 minutes) Students complete an independent at-home assignment. The assignment can be formative or summative.
a. Reading Passage AND/OR
b. Homework Worksheet

© Stephanie Elkowitz
 Differentiated Unit Planning Guide
Differentiated Planning and Pacing
The planning for this unit considers the planning and pacing of other Life Science units. The pacing options will allow you enough time to
complete all the Life Science Units offered in my store at the selected pacing option, given the time constraints noted below.

There are three main pacing options:

Pacing Option Notes
Complete • Covers ALL topics and labs presented in the unit
• Plans for one to three SNAPs laboratories per week
• Appropriate for classes with at least 315 minutes of science instruction per week
• Pacing is planned for SEVEN 45-minute class period per week
• Most useful to middle school students who lack a good understanding of basic concepts
Basic Focused • Focuses on basic topics and activities targeted for grades 3-5
• Incorporates SNAPs labs pertinent or supplementary to Grade 3, 4 and 5 NGSS standards
• Appropriate for classes with 180 minutes of science instruction per week
• Pacing is planned for FOUR 45-minutes class periods per week
• Satisfies grade 3-5 Next Generation Science Standards
Intermediate Focused • Focuses on intermediate and advanced topics and lab activities targeted for grades 6-8
• Includes advanced (black diamond) concepts when offered
• Incorporates SNAPs labs pertinent or supplementary to Middle School NGSS standards
• Appropriate for classes with 270 minutes of science instruction per week
• Pacing is planned for SIX 45-minute class periods per week
• Most appropriate for middle school students who have a good understanding of basic concepts
• Satisfies middle school Next Generation Science Standards

Planning and Pacing Documents

• The planning and pacing documents are included as sheets in a separate excel file.
• Toggle through the tabs at the bottom of the excel file to read, edit and print the planning and pacing documents.
• The planning and pacing documents are designed be opened and edited with Microsoft Excel.
• The lesson and lab summary and the pacing calendars are optimized to be printed on legal size paper (11 x 14).

© Stephanie Elkowitz
 Differentiated Unit Planning Guide
Molecular and Ecological Focused Planning and Pacing Options
For most schools, it is unlikely you will execute all the complete plans for each unit due to the scope and depth of the life science unit plans.
If you are not aligned with Next Generation Science Standards, using a molecular or ecological focused pacing option may be best for you.

There are two focused pacing options:

Pacing Option Notes

Molecular Focused • Includes all ideas in the cells, cell division, human anatomy and physiology, genetics and reproduction units
• Minimizes ideas in the ecology, evolution, plants, animal adaptations and classification units
• Does NOT cover all middle school Next Generation Science Standards
• Can be used as help plan and pace a single semester Biology or Anatomy Course
Ecological Focused • Includes all ideas in the ecology, evolution, plants, animal adaptations and classification units
• Minimizes ideas in the cells, cell division, human anatomy and physiology, genetics and reproduction units
• Does NOT cover all middle school Next Generation Science Standards
• Can be used to help plan and pace a single semester Environmental Science Course

© Stephanie Elkowitz
 Differentiated Unit Planning Guide
Laboratory
• This unit assumes the completion of a single lab activity in two 45-minute class periods.
• Allotting two class periods allows ample time for students to complete all four in-class stations. This may allow students time to work on
the post-lab activity and/or synthesis project in class as well.
• Many states have a minimum laboratory requirement for middle school and high school students. To satisfy this requirement, unit plans
schedule one lab per week. If 30 labs are completed in one academic year, at least 2700 minutes of laboratory are fulfilled.
• The materials for each lab are summarized in the lab skills and material page.

Modifying Laboratory Scheduling

• You can modify labs to be completed in one, single 45-minute class period. To do so, use only the science skills and problem-solving
stations. Then, use the narrative station as a pre-lab assignment and the assessment station as a post-lab assignment.
• If you have less than 250 minutes of class time per week, remove labs to allow enough time to cover pertinent concepts with traditional
lessons. More than enough labs are included with each unit. Removing labs will help you plan and pace units to your time constraints.
• Add labs in the suggested planning and pacing guide as a way to reinforce concepts that tend to be difficult for students.
• Depending on the abilities of your students, you can replace traditional lessons with labs as a way to explore concepts.
• The optimal time to complete a lab is suggested in the planning and pacing calendars. If you have an assigned lab period each week, you
can rearrange when labs are actually completed.

© Stephanie Elkowitz
 Differentiated Unit Planning Guide
Next Generation Science Standards
This unit includes activities that satisfy the following Next Generation Science Standards:
1. 3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of
these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
2. 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
3. MS-LS1-5. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of
organisms.
4. MS-LS3-1. Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect
proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
5. MS-LS3-2. Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and
sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
6. MS-LS4-5. Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of
desired traits in organisms.

Important NGSS Considerations

• Lessons, laboratory activities and projects that are NGSS specific are denoted in the unit plan summary.
• Some standards require multiple lessons and/or labs due to the scope and complexity of the standard.
• Next Generation Science Standards are skill based. They are best attained with laboratory activities.
• Lessons provide an opportunity to explore NGSS disciplinary core ideas (DCI).
• NGSS reassigns some “traditional” elementary or middle school topics to different grade levels. For example, the water cycle is usually
introduced in elementary grades, but is not a required study until middle school according to NGSS. For this reason, some topics are
planned for both basic and intermediate focused pacing to help the transition to NGSS and accommodate schools not aligned to NGSS.

© Stephanie Elkowitz
 Heredity & Genetics Unit Planning
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