Adaptation and Climate Change (MS)
The lesson will introduce students to the evolutionary mechanisms underlying adaptation to climate (natural selection, gene-flow, drift, and mutation). Following this lesson students will be able to answer the question: how do organisms adapt to environmental change? and make linkages between genotypic and phenotypic variation. The lesson will include two group activities and one hands-on activity.
objectives
Students will:
• Identify plant traits that may have evolved to adapt and persist within their native environment.
• Describe how random allele combinations result in different phenotypes.
• Extract DNA and tie together genetics, adaptations, environment and species success or decline.
• Calculate change in allele frequencies and associated phenotypic variation across generations in
response to natural selection and genetic drift simulations.
Topic(s)
Adaptations, climate change, genetics, evolutionary change
type
Middle school lesson
6-8
Grade(s):
time needed
Three 50-minute class periods
author
Pam Puppo, Brittany Hagen
national next gen standards
• 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.
• 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.
north dakota standards
• 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.
• 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.