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    Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

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

    Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

A Peformance Expectation (PE) is what a student should be able to do to show mastery of a concept. Some PEs include a Clarification Statement and/or an Assessment Boundary. These can be found by clicking the PE for "More Info." By hovering over a PE, its corresponding pieces from the Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts will be highlighted.

Science and Engineering Practices

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to explanations and designs that are supported by multiple and independent student-generated sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

By clicking on a specific Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Idea, or Crosscutting Concept, you can find out more information on it. By hovering over one you can find its corresponding elements in the PEs.

Planning Curriculum

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

  • RST.11-12.1 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to important distinctions the author makes and to any gaps or inconsistencies in the account. (HS-LS4-4)
  • WHST.11-12.9 - Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. (HS-LS4-4)
  • WHST.9-12.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes. (HS-LS4-4)

Mathematics

  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (HS-LS4-4)

Model Course Mapping

First Time Visitors

Resources & Lesson Plans

  • More resources added each week!
    A team of teacher curators is working to find, review, and vet online resources that support the standards. Check back often, as NSTA continues to add more targeted resources.
  • A Selection Pressure

    A Selection Pressure is the first in a three lesson series from Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry, that leads students to make sense of evolution.  This lesson is introduced in the teacher guide (this is accessible once a login has been e ...

  • Mutations

    Mutations is the final lesson in a three lesson series that includes "A Selection Pressure" and "Conflicting Selection Pressures" from Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry,  that leads students to make sense of evolution. ...

  • Conflicting Selection Pressures

    Conflicting Selection Pressures is the second lesson from Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry, in a three lesson series that leads students to make sense of evolution.  This lesson is meant to be used after A Selection Pressure which contai ...

  • Peppered Moth Simulation

    This lesson is designed to allow students the experience of how a population can change based on changes to the environment.  Students will use their own data from an interactive simulation (a paper based model is also available in the related d ...

  • Developing an Explanation for Mouse Fur Color

    This lesson from HHMI BioInteractive is based on the classic study of the evolution of fur color in rock pocket mouse populations. It supports the short film, “The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation.”  The creato ...

  • The Biology of Skin Color

      This lesson is designed to accompany a short film by HHMI BioInteractive. In the film, Penn State University anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski discusses the evidence for the natural selection of human skin color. She describes how the pheno ...

  • To Survive Poachers, Many African Elephants Born Tuskless

      The phenomenon of tuskless elephants can lead students to figure out many scientific concepts including:  natural selection, adaptation, genetics, ecology, and human impact.  This short video introduces tusklessness (due to poachi ...

  • Habitat Change Assessment Probe

    This is one of 25 assessment probes from the book,” Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 2: 25 More Formative Assessment Probes”, by Page Keeley and co-authors. All assessment probes in this collection are aligned to a particular science conce ...

  • Color Variation over Time in Rock Pocket Mouse Populations

    This activity provides an introduction to natural selection and the role of genetic variation by asking students to analyze illustrations of rock pocket mouse populations (dark/light fur) on different color substrates in the Sonoran Desert (light/dar ...

  • Stickleback Evolution Virtual Lab

    This virtual evolution lab utilizes data collection and analysis to allow students to study evolutionary processes using modern stickleback fish and fossil specimens. Students virtually analyze the pelvic structures of the threespine stickleback f ...

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  •  Of Mice and Men Engaging HS Students in Biomedical Scie ...

    Understanding the immune system and how diseases develop will help students long after they have left your classroom. This session introduced free modules that help students understand these concepts and more, including the use of animals in biomedic...

  •  Evolutionary Arms Race.doc

    Students use an online simulation (https://www.biologysimulations.com/arms-race) to test an evolutionary arms race scenario involving highly toxic prey and a predator with resistance to the toxin.

  •  Evolution by Natural Selection

    In this minds-on, hands-on activity, students develop their understanding of natural selection by analyzing specific examples and carrying out a simulation. The questions in the first section introduce students to the basic process of natural selecti...

  •  Summary of Natural Selection

    The Natural Selection virtual lab allows students the opportunity to investigate into how natural selection leads to the predominance of certain traits in a population, and the suppression of others. Therefore, through this virtual lab, students will...

  •  Where did the new coronavirus come from?

    In this analysis and discussion activity, students explore the main hypotheses about the origins of the new coronavirus that is causing the current pandemic. Students learn how mutations, natural selection, and contact between species can work togeth...

Planning Curriculum gives connections to other areas of study for easier curriculum creation.