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Target concept - Natural selection produces change in populations, not individuals.

__**Content Standards**__ - based upon the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), which are the teaching standards required under the provisions of the Texas Education Code B.7C - Analyze and evaluate how natural selection produces change in populations, not individuals. Supporting Standard B.7D - Analyze and evaluate how the elements of natural selection, including inherited variation, the potential of a population to produce more offspring than can survive, and a finite supply of environmental resources, result in differential reproductive success.Supporting Standard B.7E - Analyze and evaluate the relationship of natural selection to adaptation and to the development of diversity in and among species. Readiness Standard

__**Goals and Objectives -**__ Students will analyze evidence for evolution and scientific explanations of that evidence. They will also analyze and evaluate the mechanism of natural selection and its results.

__**Description of Lesson -**__ This is a 5 day CScope lesson using the 5E model Day 1 Engage - Peppered Moth Simulation Adaptations and Natural Selection: Advanced Organizer Day 2 Explore - Distribute the Handout: Adaptations and Natural Selection: Advanced Organizer. The purpose of this handout is so students have an organized method of assembling the information they will be learning over the several days. The first aspect of adaptations students will explore is selection advantage in different environments. This includes food sources, temperature, and climate. Divide the class into 6 groups. Distribute an index card with the name of a biome printed on it (see Advance Preparation) to each group. Students should also have either 1 sheet of chart paper or several pieces of plain paper on which they can record information. They will present the information orally so other students can record the information. Day 3 Explore/Explain - Students will present the information about adaptations that organisms must have to survive and how different environments tend to select the types of adaptations that are most suited for living in that particular environment. Students should record the information from other groups and ask any clarifying questions. Distribute the Handout: Change in Populations.Students will use instructional materials, such as locally adopted textbooks, trade books, supplemental resources or access to Internet sources, in order to create an illustration that demonstrates an understanding of the concept on the handout. Students should also add additional information to each term. Day 4 Elaborate - As a check for understanding, facilitate a discussion using the following questions as a guide: What influence do competition, habitat, food, and predators have on evolution? What is a biological species? How can one species adaptively radiate into a different species? What conditions contribute to speciation in a localized area? How might a species become reproductively isolated (unable to reproduce fertile offspring)? In what ways does natural selection produces change in populations, not individuals? Day 5 Evaluate - Assessment Using Technology - Students will create and present a media presentation analyzing and evaluating this statement - “Natural selection is usually thought of as an agent of change in populations, but it can also act to maintain the status quo.” Include the range of responses of a population to changes in the environment, such as differential reproductive success, the adaptation and development of diversity in and among species, and change in populations. (/Tool will be student created power point presentations)