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Texas Science Teacher Resource Hub

Free scope and sequences, TEKS breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, and engagement activities for the 2024 Texas science standards.

Chris Kesler
I'm Chris Kesler, a former award-winning Texas middle school science teacher. This is the site I wish I'd had in the classroom. One hub with TEKS breakdowns, scope and sequences, phenomenon starters, engagement ideas, and resources, all aligned to the standards you actually teach.
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🚀 Jump to Your Grade

Pick your grade level and go straight to your TEKS standards, aligned resources, and teaching tools.

All standards updated for the 2024 TEKS revision
TEKS Details | Texas Hub Module

4th Grade TEKS Standards

Click any standard to see what it means, how to teach it, where students get stuck, and aligned resources.

Matter & Properties (4.6)
4.6A Classify Matter by Physical Properties 4.6B Mixtures & Solutions 4.6C Conservation of Matter in Mixtures
Force & Motion (4.7)
4.7 Patterns of Forces & Motion
Energy (4.8)
4.8A Energy Transfer in Motion, Waves & Sound 4.8B Conductors & Insulators 4.8C Electrical Energy & Circuits
Earth & Space (4.9)
4.9A Patterns of the Seasons 4.9B Phases of the Moon
Earth's Processes (4.10)
4.10A The Water Cycle & the Sun 4.10B Weathering, Erosion & Deposition 4.10C Weather vs. Climate
Natural Resources (4.11)
4.11A Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources 4.11B Conservation, Disposal & Recycling 4.11C Rocks That Store Earth's Resources
Ecosystems (4.12)
4.12A How Producers Make Food 4.12B Food Webs & Energy Flow 4.12C Fossils & Past Environments
Organisms (4.13)
4.13A Plant Structures & Functions 4.13B Inherited & Acquired Traits
TEKS S.4.13B • Organisms

Inherited & Acquired Traits

The Standard

"Differentiate between inherited and acquired physical traits of organisms."

💡 What This Standard Actually Means

The Key Verb

"Differentiate". Fourth graders are telling apart two kinds of traits. Inherited traits come from parents. They're built into the organism from birth and you can't change them. Eye color, hair color, the shape of a dog's ears, the spots on a leopard. Acquired traits are picked up DURING the organism's life. They happen because of things that happen to the organism. A scar on your knee. A suntan from a summer at the pool. A cat that learned tricks. Acquired traits don't pass to the babies. Inherited ones do. The kid version of the test: did the trait come from your parents or did it happen to you after you were born?

Every living thing has traits, and those traits come from one of two places. Some traits show up because they were passed down from parents. Others show up because of things that happened during the organism's life. 4.13B is a clean, focused standard with one job: teach kids how to tell the two apart.

Inherited traits are passed from parents to offspring. A puppy gets its fur color from its parents. A kid gets eye color from mom and dad. A leopard gets its spots, a fish gets its fin shape, a sunflower gets its yellow petals. These traits are part of the organism from the moment it's born or hatches or sprouts. You can't change them by what you do later. The puppy can't grow brown fur if its parents both had black fur and passed black fur on to the puppy.

Acquired traits are picked up during life. A person gets a scar from falling off a bike. A skin gets darker from a summer in the sun. A dog learns to sit on command. A houseplant grows bent toward the window. A baseball player builds bigger arm muscles from practice. None of these things came from parents. They came from things that happened to the organism. And they don't pass to the next generation. A kid born to a parent with a scar isn't born with that scar. By the end of this unit, kids should be able to look at any trait and decide: did it come from the parents or did it happen during life?

💬 From Chris's Classroom

The fastest way to teach this standard is the "you" lesson. Have every kid grab a piece of paper and draw a self-portrait. Then have them label five things on their drawing as either "inherited" or "acquired." Hair color = inherited. Eye color = inherited. Scar on the chin = acquired. Tooth gap from when the tooth fell out = acquired. Knowing how to read = acquired. Brown skin tone passed from parents = inherited (any tan you got at the pool last summer = acquired). Kids GET this immediately because it's about their own bodies. From there, extend it to pets and animals: a dog's spots are inherited, but a dog's tricks are acquired. A leopard's spots are inherited, but a scar from a fight is acquired. Don't try to teach genetics here. The TEKS just wants "differentiate." If kids can sort traits into two columns, they've nailed it.

⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students May Have

These are some of the most common misconceptions. Knowing what to look for can help you get ahead of them.

×

"If a parent has a scar, their kid will be born with that scar"

✓

Scars are acquired traits. They happen during life because of an injury. They don't pass to babies. A baby is born with the inherited traits from the parents (eye color, hair color, body shape) but not with any of the marks the parents picked up along the way. Same with tattoos. Same with sun-tanned skin. Acquired things stay with the individual.

×

"Anything I learned is inherited because it's part of me now"

✓

Skills you learned (how to ride a bike, how to read, how to play soccer) are acquired traits. You weren't born knowing them. You picked them up during your life. Your kids someday will not be born already knowing how to ride a bike just because you know how. They'll have to learn it themselves.

×

"Eye color and hair color can change if you really want them to"

✓

Eye color and hair color are inherited traits, set by what your parents passed to you. You can dye your hair, but the new color is acquired (it'll wash out or grow out, and your real hair color comes back). You can wear contacts, but your real eye color stays the same. The inherited trait is what your body actually grows on its own.

×

"All the traits a pet has are inherited from its parents"

✓

Pets have both kinds of traits, just like people. A dog's coat color, ear shape, and size are inherited from its parents. But a dog's tricks (sit, roll over, shake), its scars, and how friendly it is with humans are acquired during its life. The dog wasn't born knowing how to sit. Someone trained it.

📓 Teaching Resources for 4.13B

These resources are aligned to this standard.

Complete 5E Lesson
Inherited & Acquired Traits Complete Science Lesson
The full unit for 4.13B: differentiated station labs, editable presentations, interactive notebooks (English + Spanish), student-choice projects, and assessments differentiating between inherited and acquired physical traits of organisms. Built on the 5E model.
⏱ Best for: Full unit coverage • Multiple class periods
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Station Lab
Inherited & Acquired Traits Station Lab
9-station hands-on lab where 4th graders differentiate between inherited and acquired physical traits of organisms. Input stations (Explore It!, Watch It!, Read It!, Research It!) and output stations (Organize It!, Illustrate It!, Write It!, Assess It!). Print and digital. English and Spanish.
🔬 Best for: Core instruction • 1-2 class periods
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Student Choice Projects
Inherited & Acquired Traits Student Choice Projects
Choice board with nine project options plus a "design your own" pathway. Students show what they know about inherited and acquired traits through writing, building, illustrating, presenting, or digital formats.
🎓 Best for: Project-based assessment • 2-3 class periods
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🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 4.13B

Use these real-world phenomena to anchor your lesson. Show students the phenomenon first, let them wonder, then build toward Inherited & Acquired Traits as the explanation.

🔎
Phenomenon 1

The Family Photo Test

Show a series of family photos (cleared with families ahead of time, or use stock photos of families). Each set has parents and a kid. Ask the class: "What do you notice that the kid got from the parents?" Eye color, hair color, nose shape, height (eventually), even ear shape can show up. Then point out the kid's t-shirt with a sports team logo or a soccer trophy nearby and ask: "Did the kid INHERIT being a soccer player?" No. They learned it. Acquired.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"What did the kid get from their parents that they couldn't change? What did the kid pick up themselves during their life?"

🔎
Phenomenon 2

The Two-Dog Story

Show photos of two dogs from the same litter (same parents, same birthday). One dog has a scar over its eye and knows three tricks. The other doesn't have a scar and only knows one trick. Both dogs are the same breed, same color, same general size, because those traits were inherited from the parents. But the scars and the tricks are different because of what happened to each dog during its life.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"How can two dogs from the same parents end up so different in some ways and so alike in others? Which differences came from the parents, and which ones came from the dogs' lives?"

🔎
Phenomenon 3

The Suntan Surprise

Show a photo of someone with a serious "farmer's tan": dark forearms and pale upper arms because they wore short sleeves all summer working outside. Their skin tone in places that didn't see the sun is the inherited color. The dark skin on their arms is acquired from being out in the sun. Same person, two different shades of skin, only one of which they were born with.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Was this person born with darker arms than legs? Where did the difference come from? When winter comes, what happens to the tan?"

💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 4.13B

01

Trait Sort Two-Column Chart

Each kid gets a chart with two columns: INHERITED and ACQUIRED. They list 10 traits about themselves: things like hair color, eye color, learning to ride a bike, getting a scar, height, knowing how to read, being able to wiggle their ears, having a freckle on their nose. They sort each trait into one column and explain why. Personal, fast, and locks in the verb directly.

Materials: Two-column chart printout, pencils
02

Pet Profile Project

Each kid writes a one-page profile of a real or imaginary pet. They include five inherited traits (fur color, breed, size, ear shape, eye color) and five acquired traits (tricks the pet knows, scars, favorite spot to sleep, vocabulary of words the pet responds to). Color-code the two kinds. Forces practice in real organism examples beyond just humans.

Materials: Lined paper, colored pencils, optional pet photo brought from home
03

Trait Card Sort

Print 30 trait cards: a mix of inherited (eye color, fur color, leaf shape, fin shape, beak shape, height) and acquired (scar, tan, learned trick, callused hands, broken tooth, missing leaf from a storm). Kids work in pairs to sort cards into two stacks. Then they pull out three "tricky" cards they argued about and explain their reasoning to the class.

Materials: 30 printed trait cards per pair, sorting mats
04

Self-Portrait with Labels

Each kid draws a full-body self-portrait. Then they label at least 6 things on it as either "inherited from parents" or "acquired during my life." Hair color, eye color, height, freckles, scars, the haircut they have right now, the t-shirt brand they like, knowing how to write their name. Display the portraits on the wall. Personal, visual, fun.

Materials: White paper, colored pencils, sticky labels or sticky notes for the labels
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Year-at-a-Glance Pacing Guides

Practical, week-by-week scope and sequences for grades 4-8. These tell you what to teach and when to teach it. Updated for the 2024 TEKS.

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Free download. No email required. Updated for the 2024 TEKS with linked activities for every unit.

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