Traits from genes, traits from surroundings, and traits from both

Grade 7 Science Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   A park ranger in Alaska says an arctic fox has a brown coat in summer and a white coat in winter. Bo sorts the trait. Which fits best?

   • Both: the genes and the length of the day
   • Learned: the fox practices changing its coat each season
   • Genes: the coat color is fixed from the day of birth
   • Surroundings: cold air changes the fox's genes to white
2. 2.

   A bean seedling on a windowsill grows bent toward the glass. Esme sorts the bend. Where does the direction of the bend come from?

   • The surroundings: the light came from one side
   • Learned: the seedling practiced bending
   • Inherited: the bend is passed down to seeds
   • The genes: the seedling is born bent
3. 3.

   The same bigleaf hydrangea is moved to alkaline soil. Kira predicts the color of the new flowers. What is the best prediction?

   • White, since the plant needs more aluminum
   • Blue, since the genes stay the same
   • Pink, since the soil changed the genes
   • Pink, since less aluminum is available
4. 4.

   Milo turns a pot so the window light now comes from the right. What will the new shoots do?

   • Bend toward the right, since shoots grow toward light
   • Stay bent left, since the old bend is in the genes
   • Bend away from the right, since shoots avoid light
   • Bend left, since the old light changed the genes

5. Read this first

   Use the table

   Coleus cuttings (model data). Trait chart.

   Genes	Surroundings	Trait
   cuttings from one coleus plant (same genes)	bright window	14 cm tall
   cuttings from the same plant (same genes)	dim shelf	20 cm tall

   Investigation card: Question: Does light change how tall cuttings grow? Changed: the light each cutting gets. Measured: height after four weeks. Kept the same: parent plant, water, pot and soil.

6. 5.

   Noah's class tested light on coleus cuttings from one plant. Which one thing did the class change on purpose?

   • The parent plant of the cuttings
   • The water each cutting received
   • The light each cutting received
   • The height of each cutting
7. 6.

   Pia's class grows hydrangea cuttings from one bush in two soils. What must stay the same in both groups?

   • The flower color that appears
   • The acidity of the soil
   • The genes, which change with the soil
   • The parent bush, the pot size and the water
8. 7.

   Ren's class tests whether light from one side bends seedlings. What should the class measure?

   • The kind of seed planted in each pot
   • The side of the pot the light comes from
   • The genes inside each seedling's cells
   • The bend of each shoot from straight up
9. 8.

   Two hydrangea plants from one bush grow in different beds. One has blue flowers and one has pink flowers. Tala explains the difference. Which explanation fits?

   • The soil acidity differs, and the genes are the same
   • The genes differ, since the colors differ
   • Bed 2 soil changed the plant's genes to pink
   • The plants must match, so a bed was mislabeled
10. 9.

    An arctic fox grows a white coat each fall and a brown coat each spring. Zee explains the change. Which explanation fits?

    • Cold weather changes the genes, so the fur turns white each fall
    • Shorter days trigger a white coat; the genes stay the same
    • The fox learns to turn white by watching its parents each year
    • The genes set the coat, so the season has no effect on it
11. 10.

    A bean plant by a window grew bent toward the glass. Ari plants seeds from that plant in a room with light from straight above. The seedlings grow straight. Why?

    • The bend was passed on, but the new light hid it
    • The bend came from the light, so it is not passed on
    • The seedlings have different genes, since they look different
    • The light changed the seeds' genes to grow straight