Lesson 2 of 8

Continuous or discontinuous?

Goal: Classify variation and show it on a graph.

Puzzles for this lesson

Continuous variation can take any value in a range. Discontinuous variation falls into separate groups.

Continuous: height, body mass, hand span, the length of a leaf. You measure it, and the answer can be any number between the smallest and the largest.
Discontinuous: blood group, or the colour of a pea flower. Each individual falls into one group, with nothing in between.
Pick the right graph. For discontinuous variation, draw a bar chart with gaps between the bars. For continuous variation, put the values into groups and draw a histogram, where the bars touch, or a line graph.

Your turn

This lesson’s activity starts here in a moment.

I can sort features into continuous and discontinuous.I can choose and plot the right graph for each.

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Variation The differences between living things

Continuous variation Can take any value in a range, such as height

Discontinuous variation Falls into separate groups, such as blood group

For teachers: AQA 3.10.1