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Genes, Sunlight and Rain in Linden Park worksheet preview

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Genes, Sunlight and Rain in Linden Park

Grade 6 life science: compare two sunflower varieties in sun and shade and read oak tree rings to explain genetic and environmental effects on growth.

Grade 6ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-LS1-5

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What’s included

  • Single worksheet
  • Auto-graded online
  • 1 NGSS standard
  • Printable answer key
  • 11 questions
  • Classroom-ready

Details

Format
Interactive · Printable
Grade
Grade 6
Subject
Science
Question types
Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

  • Students analyze data to separate the effects of genes and of sunlight on plant growth.
  • Students use tree ring and rainfall data to explain how the environment affects growth.

How to use

Read the passage aloud, then have students circle the rows of the sunflower table that change only one factor before they answer. The tree ring section works well with a real trunk slice if you have one.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-LS1-5

Explain how environmental and genetic factors affect the growth of organisms.

Preview

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Name Date

Genes, Sunlight and Rain in Linden Park

Use park data to explain how genes and the environment affect growth.

The sunflower beds

Read the passage and study the sunflower table. Then answer the questions.

A Year of Growth at Linden Park

1Every April, the volunteer crew at Linden Park plants the flower beds along the main path. This spring the park gardener, Ms. Delgado, asked the crew's teen volunteers to run a test. They planted two varieties of sunflower seeds. One variety is sold as a short sunflower and the other as a giant sunflower. Each variety went into two beds: a sunny bed by the playground that gets about 8 hours of direct sun a day, and a shady bed under the oaks that gets about 3 hours.

2Each bed held 10 plants of each variety. Both beds were filled with the same soil mix, and the same drip line watered every plant for the same time each morning. The crew pulled weeds from both beds once a week. On August 1, the volunteers measured every plant from the soil to the top of the flower and the width of each flower, then found the averages.

3Last winter, a storm cracked a large old oak near the pond, and the city cut it down. The crew sanded a slice of the trunk so the growth rings showed clearly. A tree usually adds one ring each year: a light band of wood from spring and a darker band from summer. Most of the growth happens in spring and early summer, and in winter the tree rests. The volunteers measured the width of the six newest rings, from 2020 to 2025, and matched each year to the park's rainfall records from April through September.

4Ms. Delgado reminded the crew that ring width can also depend on other things, such as insect damage, temperature and crowding by nearby trees. These six years had no major insect damage, and no nearby trees were removed.

Sunflowers on August 1 (averages of 10 plants)
VarietyBedSun per day (h)Height (cm)Flower width (cm)
GiantSunny821028
GiantShady314015
ShortSunny86012
ShortShady3427
1.

How much taller, on average, were the giant sunflowers in the sunny bed than in the shady bed?   cm

2.
Which two groups should you compare to see the effect of the seed variety (genes) without a change in sunlight?
  • A. Short in the sunny bed and short in the shady bed
  • B. Giant in the sunny bed and short in the sunny bed
  • C. Giant in the sunny bed and short in the shady bed
  • D. Giant in the shady bed and giant in the sunny bed
3.
Which statement about sunlight do the sunflower data best support?
  • A. Shade made the short sunflowers grow taller than the giant ones.
  • B. Hours of sunlight changed which variety each seed grew into.
  • C. The short variety grew to about the same height in sun and in shade.
  • D. Both varieties grew taller and wider flowers with more sunlight.
4.

In the sunny bed, how many times as tall as the short sunflowers were the giant sunflowers?   times

5.
Why did the crew use the same soil mix and the same watering in both beds?
  • A. So sunlight would be the main difference between the beds
  • B. So the giant variety would get more water than the short one
  • C. So the sunflowers would finish growing by August 1
  • D. So both varieties would grow to the same average height
6.
Sort each factor that can affect how tall a sunflower grows.
Which seed variety was plantedHours of direct sun on the bedAmount of water from the drip lineGenes inherited from the parent plantsWeeds crowding the young plantsNutrients in the soil mix
Genetic factorEnvironmental factor

Rings in the old oak

Use the tree ring table and the passage to answer the questions.

Oak Rings and Rainfall (April to September)
YearRainfall (cm)Ring width (mm)
2020383.1
2021221.4
2022453.6
2023302.2
2024191.2
2025413.3
7.
Which pattern do the oak data show?
  • A. Ring width stayed about the same from wet years to dry years.
  • B. In years with more rain, the oak usually added a wider ring.
  • C. The rings got wider each year as the tree grew older and larger.
  • D. Dry years gave the widest rings because the roots grew deeper.
8.

How much wider was the ring from the wettest year than the ring from the driest year?   mm

9.
Another oak by the pond grows in the same conditions. In one year it got 25 cm of rain from April to September. Based on the table, about how wide would you predict its ring to be?
  • A. About 1.7 mm
  • B. About 0.6 mm
  • C. About 1.1 mm
  • D. About 2.9 mm
10.
The giant sunflowers in the shady bed still grew taller than the short sunflowers in the sunny bed. What does this show?
  • A. The short variety got less water from the drip line, so its plants stayed small.
  • B. Sunlight matters more than seed variety, since sun made both varieties grow taller.
  • C. Genes set a likely range of height, and the environment moves a plant within it.
  • D. Shade is better for sunflowers than full sun, since shaded plants stretch upward.
11.
A volunteer says a sunflower's height depends on its genes alone. Do the park data support this? Write a claim, give evidence from the sunflower table, and explain your reasoning.

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