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

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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5th Grade TEKS Standards

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TEKS S.5.13B • Organisms

Behavioral Traits

The Standard

"Explain how instinctual behavioral traits such as turtle hatchlings returning to the sea and learned behavioral traits such as orcas hunting in packs increase chances of survival."

💡 What This Standard Actually Means

The Key Verb

"Explain". Students explain how two different kinds of behaviors help animals survive. The TEKS draws a sharp distinction. Instinctual behaviors are behaviors animals are born knowing how to do without being taught. The standard's anchor example: turtle hatchlings returning to the sea. Baby sea turtles dig their way out of sand nests at night and crawl straight toward the brightest horizon, which is the ocean. Nobody taught them. They just know. Learned behaviors are behaviors animals have to be taught or figure out through experience. The standard's anchor example: orcas hunting in packs. Young orcas learn complex hunting strategies from their mothers and pod members over years of practice. Both types of behavior help organisms survive. The instinctual/learned distinction is the load-bearing concept.

Animals do all kinds of things to survive. They hunt, hide, migrate, build nests, raise babies, and avoid danger. Some of these behaviors are instinctual, which means animals are born knowing how to do them. Others are learned, which means animals have to be taught or figure them out through experience. Both kinds increase an animal's chances of staying alive.

Instinctual behaviors are built in from birth. The TEKS gives the perfect example: a baby sea turtle hatches out of an egg buried in beach sand, breaks through the surface, and immediately starts crawling toward the ocean, even though it has never seen the ocean and was never taught what to do. The behavior is hardwired. Other examples include a spider building a web (no spider ever attended web-building school), a bird building a nest, and a baby kangaroo crawling into its mother's pouch right after birth. These behaviors don't need to be taught.

Learned behaviors are different. Animals figure them out through practice, watching others, or being taught. The TEKS gives the perfect example: orcas hunting in packs. Young orcas don't know how to hunt seals or fish in coordinated groups when they're born. They watch their mothers and pod members for years, slowly learning the techniques. Different orca pods even have different hunting "languages" because the learning is local. Other learned behaviors include a chimp learning to use a stick to fish for termites, a dog learning to sit when called, and a young hawk learning to time its dives.

The takeaway: both kinds of behaviors increase survival, but they get there in different ways. Instinct doesn't need a teacher. Learning needs experience. Real animals usually use a mix of both. By the end of the unit, kids should be able to look at any animal behavior and say, "Was this animal born knowing how to do this, or did it have to learn? How does that behavior help it stay alive?"

💬 From Chris's Classroom

The way I make instinct vs. learned stick is by asking the kids about themselves. I'll say, "Were you born knowing how to ride a bike?" They laugh and say no, you have to learn. "Were you born knowing how to cry when you were hungry?" They have to think about it. They were. Babies cry from day one. Nobody teaches a newborn to cry. Then I flip to animals. "Were baby sea turtles taught to crawl to the ocean? No, they hatch and just go. That's instinct. Were orcas taught to hunt in packs? Yes, they learn from their pod for years. That's learned." Once they have themselves as the comparison point, they sort animal behaviors easily. The classic moment is when one kid asks, "What about a puppy that already knows how to chase a ball?" Then we get into the gray zone: a puppy might have an instinct to chase moving things, but learning the rules of fetch is on top of that. Real animals mix both, and that's where the conversation gets fun.

⚠️ 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.

"All animal behaviors are instinct"

✓

Lots of animal behaviors are learned, not just instincts. A young orca has to learn the complex hunting techniques used by its pod. A wolf cub has to learn how to hunt with the rest of the wolves. Even pets learn behaviors: a puppy doesn't come knowing how to sit on command or play fetch the way you've taught it. Many of the most complex animal behaviors are learned through years of experience.

"All animal behaviors are learned"

✓

Some behaviors are completely instinctual, meaning the animal is born already knowing how to do them. Sea turtle hatchlings crawl to the ocean without anyone teaching them. Spiders build webs without lessons. Newborn babies (animal or human) cry when they're hungry without being taught. Instinct is built into the animal's biology and shows up the first time it's needed.

"Animals can only do behaviors that help them survive — they can't have wasted behaviors"

✓

Most surviving behaviors really do help animals stay alive, but some behaviors are leftovers from older purposes or only matter occasionally. The reason most animal behaviors fit their environment is that animals with helpful behaviors survive longer and pass those behaviors (and the genes for them, if they're instinctual) to their young. Over thousands of generations, behaviors that don't help tend to fade away.

"Once an animal learns something, all of its species automatically know it too"

✓

Learned behaviors don't pass to other animals automatically. If one orca pod figures out a clever way to hunt, that knowledge doesn't magically transfer to a different pod across the ocean. Instead, the learning gets passed down within the pod over generations because young orcas watch their elders. That's why different pods of the same species can have totally different hunting strategies. Learning is local. Instinct is genetic.

📓 Teaching Resources for 5.13B

These resources are aligned to this standard.

Complete 5E Lesson

Behavioral Traits Complete Science Lesson

The full unit for 5.13B: differentiated station labs, editable presentations, interactive notebooks (English + Spanish), student-choice projects, and assessments centered on instinctual and learned behavioral traits and how each increases survival. Built on the 5E model.

⏱ Best for: Full unit coverage • Multiple class periods

Station Lab

Behavioral Traits Station Lab

9-station hands-on lab where students explore the difference between instinctual and learned behaviors and explain how each helps animals survive. 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

Student Choice Projects

Behavioral Traits Student Choice Projects

Choice board with nine project options plus a "design your own" pathway. Students demonstrate their understanding of instinctual and learned behaviors through writing, building, illustrating, presenting, or digital formats.

🎓 Best for: Project-based assessment • 2-3 class periods

🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 5.13B

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

🔎

Phenomenon 1

The Hatchlings Run for the Sea

A nighttime video shows a sandy beach in Texas where dozens of tiny sea turtle hatchlings are pushing up out of a buried nest. The babies have just hatched out of their eggs underground for the first time in their lives. They've never seen the ocean. No parent is around to guide them. But every single hatchling immediately starts crawling toward the brightest part of the horizon, which is the ocean reflecting moonlight. They scramble across the sand, dodge crab holes, and reach the water. The behavior is the same every single time, in every nest, all over the world.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"How do baby sea turtles know to head for the ocean if they've never seen it and nobody taught them? What kind of behavior is this? How does it help them survive?"

🔎

Phenomenon 2

The Orca Hunt in Patagonia

A documentary clip shows a pod of orcas in Patagonia, Argentina. They are doing something extraordinary: they intentionally beach themselves on the shore to grab seal pups, then wiggle back into the ocean. This hunting technique is unique to this pod. No other orca pod in the world does it. Mother orcas have been teaching their young this dangerous and skilled technique for generations. Young orcas spend years practicing on their own, often making mistakes, before they get good at it. It's not built in. It's taught and learned.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"How do young orcas learn this dangerous hunting technique? Why doesn't every orca pod do it? What kind of behavior is this? How does this learning help the pod survive?"

🔎

Phenomenon 3

The Bird's First Nest

A young robin, born and raised in captivity with no other birds around, is placed in an outdoor area in spring. She has never seen another bird build a nest. She has never been taught how. Yet the moment spring comes, she begins gathering twigs, grass, and bits of string, weaving them into a perfect cup-shaped nest in a sheltered branch. The nest looks just like any wild robin's nest. She lays her eggs and incubates them. None of it required teaching. The whole behavior was already programmed inside her.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"How did the robin know how to build a nest if no one taught her? What kind of behavior is this? Compare it to how an orca learns to hunt. What's similar and what's different?"

💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 5.13B

Instinct vs. Learned Sort

Each pair gets a stack of "behavior cards" describing animal actions: spider building a web, dog learning to sit, salmon swimming upstream to spawn, dolphin doing a trick at SeaWorld, baby kangaroo finding the pouch, parrot mimicking human words, bee finding a flower, lion cubs learning to hunt. Students sort each card into "Instinctual" or "Learned" piles and write a one-sentence justification for each. Discussion at the end catches the gray-area ones (lion cubs use both).

Materials: Behavior cards, sorting bins, recording sheets

Behavior Tracking at the Zoo (or Park)

If a field trip to a zoo or local park is possible, students observe one animal for 15 minutes and record its behaviors. Back at school, they classify each behavior as instinctual or learned. If a field trip isn't possible, use a wildlife documentary or live zoo cam. Each student picks one behavior, writes a paragraph about what kind it is, and explains how it helps the animal survive.

Materials: Recording sheets, clipboards, access to a zoo, park, or wildlife video, recording sheets

Animal Behavior Comic Strip

Each student picks one animal and draws a 4-panel comic strip showing two behaviors: one instinctual (panel 1-2) and one learned (panel 3-4). They label each panel with the behavior, whether it's instinctual or learned, and how it helps the animal survive. Forces them to think of two different behaviors for the same animal and explain how each one matters.

Materials: Comic strip templates, colored pencils, recording sheets

Compare to a Human Baby

Students brainstorm a list of things human babies do without being taught (cry, suck, grasp, sleep) and a list of things humans have to learn (walking, talking, riding a bike, reading). They build a chart with two columns: instinctual behaviors and learned behaviors. Then they look at the same chart for one animal of their choice. Side-by-side comparison drives home that humans have both kinds, and so do other animals.

Materials: Comparison chart templates, recording sheets

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Texas Science Teacher Resource Hub

🚀 Jump to Your Grade

5th Grade TEKS Standards

Behavioral Traits

💡 What This Standard Actually Means

⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students May Have

📓 Teaching Resources for 5.13B

🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 5.13B

The Hatchlings Run for the Sea

The Orca Hunt in Patagonia

The Bird's First Nest

💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 5.13B

Instinct vs. Learned Sort

Behavior Tracking at the Zoo (or Park)

Animal Behavior Comic Strip

Compare to a Human Baby

Year-at-a-Glance Pacing Guides

Trusted Across Texas

Texas Schools and DistrictsLove Kesler Science

What Teachers Are Saying

Give Your Science Teachers Everything They Need

See It in Action

Texas Schools and Districts
Love Kesler Science