Summary
Introduces natural selection and adaptation — explaining how populations of living things change over generations in response to environmental pressures, and why individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce more.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
- What is natural selection? What does 'survival of the fittest' really mean?
- How do adaptations develop over many generations — not in one individual's lifetime?
- Give an example of an organism that is well-adapted to its environment. What specific trait helps it?
- If a forest turns from green to snowy white overnight, how might natural selection change the rabbit population over 100 years?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: natural selection, adaptation, population, environment, variation, survive, reproduce.
Try it: Scatter 30 red and 30 green paper circles on a red background. Have partners 'eat' circles (pick them up) for 20 seconds. Count what remains. Which color had better 'camouflage'? Repeat with a green background. Discuss what this models.