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Understanding Sexual Selection – Natural vs Sexual Selection Digital Lesson with Real Organisms & Alien Evolution Task
A Digital Biology Lesson on Male Competition, Female Choice, Fitness, and Environmental Pressures.
Make sexual selection finally make sense for your students with this highly visual, interactive digital lesson. Instead of memorizing definitions, learners move step-by-step through natural selection, sexual selection, male competition, and female choice — all through real organism case studies and engaging application tasks.
This slide-based lesson breaks down difficult ideas into clean visuals and scaffolded thinking. Students analyze lizards, insects, mammals, and fish, compare how ornamentation and competition evolve in different environments, and evaluate real experimental evidence from John Endler’s guppy stream research and Malte Andersson’s long-tailed widowbird study. Each concept is reinforced through reasoning prompts, structured graphic organizers, and a final creative challenge.
The lesson ends with an unforgettable alien evolution drawing activity where students design separate male and female phenotypes based on selection pressures across three planets. Students apply evolution rather than observe it — and the results are always incredible.
Perfect for teaching natural vs. sexual selection, introducing evolution mechanisms, or reinforcing higher-level reasoning in Biology and Life Science courses.
🧬 What’s Included
Digital slide lesson + editable student tasks
Male competition vs female choice comparison visuals
Real organism analysis: lizards, arthropods, mammals, fish
Video-supported overview + evolutionary tree fill-in
Predator vs no-predator guppy coloration study
Widowbird tail length experiment predictions
Summary table + exit ticket for assessment
Creative alien evolution design challenge
Full answer key included
💡 Why Teachers Love It
✔ No prep required — assign and teach the same day
✔ Clear visuals for hard concepts like mating success vs survival advantage
✔ Real science, not just simplified notes or definitions
✔ Mix of analysis, application, creativity, and discussion
✔ Works beautifully for sub plans, digital learning, and NGSS-aligned units
✔ Students stay engaged because they get to think, compare, and create
This resource doesn’t just teach sexual selection — it helps students understand why it happens.
Grade & Course Recommendation
Best Fit Grades
Grades 8–12
Ideal Courses
Biology
Life Science
Evolution & Natural Selection units
Zoology & Ecology electives
AP Biology (as an intro / conceptual support activity)
Why this level:
Learners evaluate case evidence, apply conceptual models, generate predictions, and explain phenotypic change over generations.
Cross-Curricular Connections & Extensions
ELA — Scientific Writing
Students justify alien trait choices using evidence-based reasoning
Art + Creative Expression
Planet drawings invite design thinking + trait illustration.
History of Science
Endler and Andersson’s studies introduce real research methodology.
Optional Extensions
Students design a new animal species shaped by sexual vs natural selection.
CER writing prompt: Which selection type shapes evolution most strongly and why?
Build a poster comparing species under male competition vs female choice.
Daily slide + literacy - based exit ticket included with purchase
Join the Lesson Laboratory and Teach for Tomorrow!
NGSS Standards Alignment
DCIs
HS-LS4-2 — Natural selection & adaptation driven by environmental pressures → visible w/ predators vs no predators in guppy case.
HS-LS4-3 — Allele frequency shifts inferred through long-term population outcomes.
HS-LS4-4 — Model sexual selection outcomes in alien design activity.
MS-LS4-4 / MS-LS4-6 appropriate for middle school extension or differentiation.
Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs)
Analyzing & Interpreting Data: guppy stream evidence + widowbird tail length results
Constructing Explanations: students justify organism trait evolution
Developing & Using Models: alien evolution drawings serve as phenotypic models
Engaging in Argument from Evidence: students evaluate which selection type is dominant
Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)
Cause & Effect: predation vs resource abundance → ornamentation & morphology
Structure & Function: tail length, coloration, weapons tied to reproductive advantage
Stability & Change: trait frequencies shift over generations via sexual pressures
Systems & System Models: ecological pressures determine sexual vs natural priority
Common Core Standards (ELA)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.3
Follow instructions to build models + complete prediction chart.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.1
Cite evidence when interpreting experiments.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-12.2
Write clear explanatory evolution justifications (alien evolution).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1
Collaborative discussion around visible selection traits.
A Digital Biology Lesson on Male Competition, Female Choice, Fitness, and Environmental Pressures.
Make sexual selection finally make sense for your students with this highly visual, interactive digital lesson. Instead of memorizing definitions, learners move step-by-step through natural selection, sexual selection, male competition, and female choice — all through real organism case studies and engaging application tasks.
This slide-based lesson breaks down difficult ideas into clean visuals and scaffolded thinking. Students analyze lizards, insects, mammals, and fish, compare how ornamentation and competition evolve in different environments, and evaluate real experimental evidence from John Endler’s guppy stream research and Malte Andersson’s long-tailed widowbird study. Each concept is reinforced through reasoning prompts, structured graphic organizers, and a final creative challenge.
The lesson ends with an unforgettable alien evolution drawing activity where students design separate male and female phenotypes based on selection pressures across three planets. Students apply evolution rather than observe it — and the results are always incredible.
Perfect for teaching natural vs. sexual selection, introducing evolution mechanisms, or reinforcing higher-level reasoning in Biology and Life Science courses.
🧬 What’s Included
Digital slide lesson + editable student tasks
Male competition vs female choice comparison visuals
Real organism analysis: lizards, arthropods, mammals, fish
Video-supported overview + evolutionary tree fill-in
Predator vs no-predator guppy coloration study
Widowbird tail length experiment predictions
Summary table + exit ticket for assessment
Creative alien evolution design challenge
Full answer key included
💡 Why Teachers Love It
✔ No prep required — assign and teach the same day
✔ Clear visuals for hard concepts like mating success vs survival advantage
✔ Real science, not just simplified notes or definitions
✔ Mix of analysis, application, creativity, and discussion
✔ Works beautifully for sub plans, digital learning, and NGSS-aligned units
✔ Students stay engaged because they get to think, compare, and create
This resource doesn’t just teach sexual selection — it helps students understand why it happens.
Grade & Course Recommendation
Best Fit Grades
Grades 8–12
Ideal Courses
Biology
Life Science
Evolution & Natural Selection units
Zoology & Ecology electives
AP Biology (as an intro / conceptual support activity)
Why this level:
Learners evaluate case evidence, apply conceptual models, generate predictions, and explain phenotypic change over generations.
Cross-Curricular Connections & Extensions
ELA — Scientific Writing
Students justify alien trait choices using evidence-based reasoning
Art + Creative Expression
Planet drawings invite design thinking + trait illustration.
History of Science
Endler and Andersson’s studies introduce real research methodology.
Optional Extensions
Students design a new animal species shaped by sexual vs natural selection.
CER writing prompt: Which selection type shapes evolution most strongly and why?
Build a poster comparing species under male competition vs female choice.
Daily slide + literacy - based exit ticket included with purchase
Join the Lesson Laboratory and Teach for Tomorrow!
NGSS Standards Alignment
DCIs
HS-LS4-2 — Natural selection & adaptation driven by environmental pressures → visible w/ predators vs no predators in guppy case.
HS-LS4-3 — Allele frequency shifts inferred through long-term population outcomes.
HS-LS4-4 — Model sexual selection outcomes in alien design activity.
MS-LS4-4 / MS-LS4-6 appropriate for middle school extension or differentiation.
Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs)
Analyzing & Interpreting Data: guppy stream evidence + widowbird tail length results
Constructing Explanations: students justify organism trait evolution
Developing & Using Models: alien evolution drawings serve as phenotypic models
Engaging in Argument from Evidence: students evaluate which selection type is dominant
Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)
Cause & Effect: predation vs resource abundance → ornamentation & morphology
Structure & Function: tail length, coloration, weapons tied to reproductive advantage
Stability & Change: trait frequencies shift over generations via sexual pressures
Systems & System Models: ecological pressures determine sexual vs natural priority
Common Core Standards (ELA)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.3
Follow instructions to build models + complete prediction chart.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.1
Cite evidence when interpreting experiments.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-12.2
Write clear explanatory evolution justifications (alien evolution).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1
Collaborative discussion around visible selection traits.