Understanding Natural Selection

Uncover the Marvels of Natural Selection with Our Interactive Digital Lesson!

Engaging Exploration: This carefully designed digital lesson introduces students to the five foundational concepts of natural selection. If you place this lesson after a lesson comparing natural selection with acquired characteristics, this lesson is the perfect segue into a deeper understanding of evolution.

Differentiated Learning: Tailored to cater to diverse learning levels, students delve into the five postulates of natural selection. They then choose from twelve intriguing topics to analyze. These topics span easy, intermediate, and challenging levels, ensuring an appropriate challenge for every student.

Real-Life Scenarios: Through real-world scenarios, students witness natural selection in action, gaining a deeper appreciation for its influence on biodiversity and species survival.

Comprehensive Exploration: Topics range from foundational evolution concepts to complex situations including ring species, mimicry, coevolution, and shifting baseline theory. This multifaceted approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of natural selection.

Interactive Simulation: Immerse students in the captivating case study of the peppered moth, a classic example of evolution in action. Through an online simulation game, they witness firsthand the impact of natural selection on moth populations.

Graphical Analysis: Students create a double line graph comparing the populations of different moth types, reinforcing their grasp of evolutionary processes.

Mutation Investigation: Delve into the mutation that led to the dark form of the peppered moth, identifying the type of mutation that drove this remarkable adaptation.

Empower Your Students: Equip your learners with a profound understanding of natural selection, laying the foundation for a comprehensive grasp of evolution. Download our interactive lesson now and witness their newfound knowledge take flight!

Grade Recommendation

• Middle School: Grades 7–8 (Life Science unit on adaptation and evolution)

• High School: Grades 9–10 (Biology—mechanisms of evolution and evidence for natural selection)
  This lesson works well for middle schoolers learning the fundamentals of adaptation and for high school students exploring the genetic mechanisms behind it.

Cross-Curricular Connections and/or Extensions

• ELA: Students analyze and summarize primary sources (e.g., articles about Lamarck, mutations, and the peppered moth), supporting claims with evidence.

• History of Science: Ties into how scientific understanding evolves—from Lamarck’s acquired traits to Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

• Technology Integration: Students use interactive simulations and digital resources, such as the Peppered Moth Game and Harvard’s Transposons site, promoting inquiry and evidence-based reasoning.

• Extension: Students could model their own "evolution scenarios" by altering environmental factors in a classroom simulation or using graphing software to display changing population data.
  

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NGSS Standards

Middle School (MS-LS):

• MS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing.

• MS-LS4-6: Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.

High School (HS-LS):

• HS-LS4-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: potential for a species to increase in number, heritable genetic variation, competition for limited resources, and proliferation of better-adapted organisms.

• HS-LS4-3: Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with advantageous traits tend to increase in proportion in a population.

• HS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.

Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs):

• Analyzing and interpreting data

• Constructing explanations and designing solutions

• Engaging in argument from evidence

• Developing and using models

Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs):

• Cause and effect

• Patterns

• Stability and change

• Scale, proportion, and quantity

Common Core Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.1 / RST.9-10.1 – Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science texts.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.7 / RST.9-10.7 – Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed visually (graphs, simulations).

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.2 / WHST.9-10.2 – Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas clearly.