Incubation Temperature and Turtle Hatchlings

Use the sorting sheet to introduce asexual and sexual reproduction, then the banana sheet to show why variation matters. The flower and turtle sheets fit plant and animal lessons.

Graph the percent of female slider turtle hatchlings from 26 to 32 degrees Celsius. The directions on the page read: Read the text. Plot the sample data as points joined by lines, then answer each question. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade living things, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

Asexual reproduction uses one parent, so the offspring are identical copies of its genes. Sexual reproduction mixes genes from two parents, so each offspring differs. Sort Cases by Variation in Offspring has students sort cases from garlic cloves to panda cubs.

Every Cavendish plant is grown from a piece of a parent, so all of them have the same genes. A disease that kills one plant can kill them all, as Panama disease did to Gros Michel bananas. Banana Clones and the Risk of No Variation explains this risk.

Slider turtles have no sex chromosomes, so the soil temperature during incubation decides whether a hatchling is male or female. In the sample data on Incubation Temperature and Turtle Hatchlings, warmer nests hatch more females.