Autism Lesson Plan: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Autism, and supports the standard of understanding and respecting the diversity of human traits. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Prompt students to reflect on the diverse strengths of their classroom community. Ask students:

• How do members of our classroom contribute to our community in different ways? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the Autism topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Have students read one of the five Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Autism Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about autism while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs. 

• Make-a-Movie: Create a PSA answering this question: How can you be a good friend to classmates with autism?
• Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying and explaining the variety of traits encompassed by the autism spectrum. 
• Creative Coding: Code a digital museum exhibit honoring the societal contributions of Temple Grandin and Greta Thunberg.

More to Explore

Genetics, Growth, and Development Unit: Continue to build understanding around inheritance and variation of traits with more BrainPOP topics.

Social-Emotional Learning Collection: Continue to build understanding around empathy and respect with BrainPOP’s six-week SEL curriculum that addresses the five CASEL competencies.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.