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To engage students in lesson I have students visit Mutt Maker, an Animal Planet computer simulation. The objective of this activity is for students to create their own dog breed using a combination of traits (face, trunk, legs, tail) from various dog breeds. The site gives students a brief description of all the dog breeds which students can choose from to create their new dog breed. Once students have created their dog breed they are required to write down its unique name.

Teacher Note: This is a good starting point, even though it is a bit extreme and not entirely scientific, about how human can influence the inheritance of desired traits in dogs and other organisms. (MS-LS4-5. Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.). Since dog breeding is the focus of this lesson this sets a foundation for the remainder of the lesson's activities. It's also important to time this activity (5 minutes) since students will want to keep on running this activity to create numerous dog breeds.

To follow up I show students From Wild Wolves to Man's Best Friend by the California Academy of Sciences.

This short videodiscusses how through the years humans have used artificial selection as a means to obtain dogs with desirable traits, for example for the purpose of hunting. (CCC - Cause and Effect -Phenomena may have more than one cause, and some cause and effect relationships in systems can only be described using probability.)

As students watch video they are required to write down at least 3 dog breeds including a brief description of their desired traits.

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To engage students in lesson I have students visit Mutt Maker, an Animal Planet computer simulation. The objective of this activity is for students to create their own dog breed using a combination of traits (face, trunk, legs, tail) from various dog breeds.

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In this section of lesson students explore the necessary conditions for evolution by natural selection by completing a Natural Selection Activity. This activity is adapted from the University of California, Los Angeles Life Sciences 1 Demonstration Manual Copyright 2013 by Drs. Jennifer Doherty and Ingrid Waldron, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania.

Activate: As my students are nature deprived, I feel it is important that I provide context. Today I use The Making of the Fittest, an HHMI video. You may want to preteach "visual predator". Rather than telling students, you could ask them what some of the ways are that hunters can detect their prey.

Directions:

1. Students begin exploring the relationship between adaptation and fitness through inquiry based problems that require higher order level thinking skills through application and analysis of data. ( 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.)

In this particular exercise students have a discussion to identify what mouse has the most fitness based on the definition given, ability to survive and reproduce. To facilitate this peer discussion I have students practice Turn to Your Neighbor. (Teacher Notes: The correct answer is the Tan mouse since it reproduce the most number of pups).

In Turn to Your Neighbor students consider a problem or question for a few minutes, then discuss it with the person next to them. After a few minutes, several pairs share their ideas with the class. Also called "think-pair-share", this strategy promotes the exchange of ideas and helps students clarify points or apply concepts to a problem or situation. (SL7.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.)

2. In problem 3 of the Natural Selection Activity students delve deeper into a more complete definition of fitness, the ability to survive and reproduce offspring who can survive and reproduce. ( 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 in a specific environment.

It's important to realize that reproduction only provides fitness if those young are able to grow up to adulthood reproduce themselves. If young die before they reach reproductive age there is no way to continue the passing of genes to future generations. In this problem students are presented with data from four different lions and are required to choose lion that they believe to be the most fit based on the new more complete definition. For this problem I have students participate in Corners. This strategy is explained in my reflection.

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In this section of lesson students explore the necessary conditions for evolution by natural selection by completing a Natural Selection Activity. This activity is adapted from the University of California, Los Angeles Life Sciences 1 Demonstration Manual Copyright 2013 by Drs. Jennifer Doherty and Ingrid Waldron, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania.

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You have been learning that animals develop adaptations over time that allow them to survive in harsh environments. The elephant cools its blood by flapping its ears; a rhino has its thick skin to protect it from thorns; a zebra travels in a herd and has stripes so that individuals are hard to hunt. You are going to design your own animal with an adaptation.
The purpose of this activity is for students to begin to think about how genetic diversity allows for certain individuals to have a greater probability of survival and reproducing in a specific environment.(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 in a specific environment.)

Pick ONE of the challenges below and come up with an animal that has 3 adaptations to help it compensate for the problem. Your adaptation should be a natural type of adaptation - no strapping a flashlight to the head of the animal so that it can see better at night! You must complete an annotated illustration of your animal's 3 adaptations.

Animal A: A yellow and orange clown fish lives in dark green tropical coral. It needs some protection from larger fish that prey on it. Its major food source is dying off and new food sources live in deeper, colder waters. Other small fish at this water level tend to swim faster than this clown fish can swim.

Animal B: A small mammal living in the forest has trouble finding food at night. It hides during the day. It has yellow fur and is hunted easily by 3 different species of predators in its environment.

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You have been learning that animals develop adaptations over time that allow them to survive in harsh environments. The elephant cools its blood by flapping its ears; a rhino has its thick skin to protect it from thorns; a zebra travels in a herd and has stripes so that individuals are hard to hunt.

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In this section of lesson I use an Adaptation Assessment Probe from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science: 25 new formative assessments, Volume 4.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students' ideas about biological adaptation. The probe is designed to find out if students think animals intentionally adapt to a change in their environment.

You don't have to use this probe to elicit what students think about adaptation. Some questions, or a "scenario", could also elicit their thinking. The information needed to elicit student understanding is covered in the detailed information about common misconceptions related to adaptation (below - from NSTA). Just remember to always ask students to include a "because statement".

The probe's title is "Adaptation". This is one of many terrific probes found in a series of books published by the NSTA.
Common Misconception:
"There is a common misconception about evolution that implies that an individual can intentionally change and pass on it's genes so that its offspring will be adapted. Due to this both Leo and Bernie's answers are in correct. Either the genes are there that allow individuals to survive and pass on their traits that enhance survival to its offspring (natural selection) or they are not there. Another problem is the common use of the verb adapt, which implies that an action is being taken by an individual." - Uncovering Student Ideas in Science (Volume 4)- 25 NEW Formative Assessment Probes by Page Keeley and Joyce Tugel (2009).

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Adaptation and Evolution of Populations: The Case of the Peppered Moth

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In this section of lesson I use an Adaptation Assessment Probe from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science: 25 new formative assessments, Volume 4. The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students' ideas about biological adaptation. The probe is designed to find out if students think animals intentionally adapt to a change in their environment.

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I tell the students that we will continue to work with the Colored candius organisms. I ask the students to pick up their bags of candy and Lab Sheet.

This time, each table will get one full-sized bag. Each student will then blindly obtain a genetic drift population of 6 candies and determine its frequency ( SP5). After each student has calculated the frequency of each color in their "personal" genetic drift population, the table counts and determines the frequency of each color in the original population (number of candies in the complete bag). This is what the results could look like:

Once students have their data, it is time to analyze and interpret it ( SP4). Even though the students will work independently, I still encourage them to talk to each other and share their ideas since this is where much of the clarification (examine understanding in light of the evidence) and engaging in argument from data centered evidence ( SP7) happens. This simple lab also serves as a model for the students to help explain cause and effect relationships and predict how gene frequency may be affected by the founder or bottleneck effects of genetic drift ( SP2, CCC Cause and Effect).

As students finish answering the questions in their lab sheet, I ask that they turn them in. As I look at them I am paying particular attention to their responses to questions 4 and 7 which reveal their understanding of the effects of genetic drift. In question 4, students arrive at the realization that in a genetic drift population the allele frequencies may never match those of the original population. As simply stated by one of the students, "The colors will never be equal since I already lost all the brown and orange in the first group." In question 7, students come up with scenarios that could cause the genetic drift they observed, and identify their imagined scenario as founder effect or bottleneck. This question allows students to develop their ideas about one of the concepts a little bit further ( SW1, SW2, SW3, SW4).

Watch as the students move through the lab and achieve understanding.

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I tell the students that we will continue to work with the Colored candius organisms. I ask the students to pick up their bags of candy and Lab Sheet. This time, each table will get one full-sized bag. Each student will then blindly obtain a genetic drift population of 6 candies and determine its frequency ( SP5).

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In the second part of the lesson, I ask students to pick an animal, and to develop a comic strip that depicts how their chosen animal is an example of survival of the fittest. This cartoon does not have to be very elaborate, but it must depict how their chosen animal is fit. Students can find the rubric for the comic strip on the second page of the Survival of the Sneakiest sheet.

Sometimes students struggle with coming up with ideas. To guide the students, I tell them to pick their favorite animal (or an animal whose name starts with their first initial). Then, they can look up their animal's adaptations by simply doing an Internet search of their "chosen animal adaptations". Choosing from whatever comes up, they can move on to how that adaptation makes their animal fit for their environment, and move from there to the comic strip.

I also give them examples like, "survival of the thick skinned (elephants or rhinoceros)", "survival of the tallest (giraffes or moose)", "survival of the stickiest feet (grasshoppers)", "survival of the most patient (cats, alligators or spiders)", "survival of the pickiest eater (koala)".

This activity fosters not only the 21st Century skill of creative thinking, but also gets students thinking about why specific adaptations developed, giving them an opportunity to evaluate information and form hypotheses ( SP6).

In this Student Speak video I asked students to talk about the adaptations they chose to showcase. As you can see, they are still in the process of drafting their work and exploring the information they have available.

Here are some examples of the student's final cartoons

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In the second part of the lesson, I ask students to pick an animal, and to develop a comic strip that depicts how their chosen animal is an example of survival of the fittest. This cartoon does not have to be very elaborate, but it must depict how their chosen animal is fit.

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Plan better lessons for your students in critical subjects such as algebra, reading comprehension, and the life sciences with free resouces from world-class teachers.

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Biological Evolution LS4-5

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Plan better lessons for your students in critical subjects such as algebra, reading comprehension, and the life sciences with free resouces from world-class teachers.