Students explore Darwin’s big idea — that variation, environmental pressure, and survival of the fittest cause helpful traits to become more common over generations, letting species adapt and, over vast time, evolve.
Students will be able to…
How did a moth’s wings, a cactus’s spines, or a cheetah’s speed come to fit their world so perfectly — without anyone designing them?
Project this and tap each step of natural selection. Have students trace how variation and the environment lead to adaptation.
Tap any phase to open the teacher moves and student actions.
How did living things get so perfectly suited to their homes?
Students investigate.
Teacher explains.
Apply.
Three quick checks.
Aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core literacy. State-standard crosswalks available on request.
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to increases and decreases of specific traits.
Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection changes populations over time.
Apply scientific ideas to analyze similarities and differences among organisms.
Integrate quantitative or technical information with text.
Preview the three formative checks. Tap “Sample answer” to see what mastery looks like — hide them before you print for students.
Have students analyze how peppered moths changed color as pollution darkened the trees they rest on — a real case of natural selection. A printable data sheet is in the Science library.
Tap a card to flip it, then rate whether you knew it. Built from this lesson’s vocabulary.
A quick self-check with instant feedback, drawn from this lesson’s key terms.
A print-and-go review sheet with a built-in answer key. Tap “Show answer key” to reveal answers, or print the clean version for students.