Students explore evidence of common ancestry and diversity of living things, such as the fossil record, anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today compared to those in the fossil record, and comparisons of embryological development of different species. They learn about adaptations and natural selection, and how traits that support successful survival and reproduction in an environment become more common.
Download the complete Life Science – Natural Selection & Adaptations framework to customize for your own planning.
Standards
- MS-LS1-4. Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants, respectively.
- MS-LS1-5. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
- MS-LS3-1. Develop and use a model to explain why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
- MS-LS3-2. Develop and use a model to describe how asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
- MS-LS4-5. Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
Essential questions and big ideas of the unit
- Did plants and animals always look the way they do now?
- The collection of fossils and their placement in chronological order (e.g., through the location of the sedimentary layers in which they are found or through radioactive dating) is known as the fossil record. It documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms throughout the history of life on Earth. (MS-LS4-1)
- Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between them and organisms in the fossil record, enable the reconstruction of evolutionary history and the inference of lines of evolutionary descent. (MS-LS4-2) Comparison of the embryological development of different species also reveals similarities that show relationships not evident in the fully-formed anatomy. (MS-LS4-3)
- Why are some plants and/or animals no longer in existence?
- Natural selection can lead to an increase in the frequency of some traits and the decrease in the frequency of other traits. (MS-LS4-4)
- Adaptation by natural selection acting over generations is one important process by which species change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common; those that do not become less common. Thus, the distribution of traits in a population changes. (MS-LS4-6)
Download the complete Life Science – Natural Selection & Adaptations framework to customize for your own planning.