Evolution Part 3 - Natural Selection

EVOLUTION PART 3 – NATURAL SELECTION

Ms. Carter

MUTATIONS are changes in our DNA. Sometimes, mutations are harmful and cause death. Other times, mutations give the individual an advantage and allow these individual to survive certain environmental conditions better. Organisms with good mutations survive and have offspring. Some offspring inherit the good mutation, survive, have children and so on.  Mutations that allow organisms to survive and pass on to future generations are part of the evolutionary process.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.gen.doubleimmunity/

Background essay: Double Immunity

1. Why are some people resistant to the HIV virus today?

Video:  Double Immunity

1. Why doesn’t the virus enter the cells of people with this mutation?
2. What is the evolutionary importance of the mutation that cause pople to durvive the plague 700 years ago?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/2/l_012_02.html

Watch the video and read the essay below it

1. Why are some people resistant to malaria?
2. If sickle cell is lethal, why is it still present in populations? How is it pass on from generations to generations? Explain.

Some organisms survive the hazards of their environment by changing themselves to blend with their surrounding.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.lp_howevowork/

VIDEO: Evolution of Camouflage

Read the essay and watch the video:

1. Explain how is camouflage related to evolution?

http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/lsps07_int_nowherehide/

After playing this interactive write a short essay on how camouflage allows for natural selection to take place in a prey/predator relationship.

The Fossil Record- Evolution Part 2

How Evolution Works – Evolution Part 2

Ms. Carter

Evidence for Evolution

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.div.lp_evid/

Video: Becoming a Fossil

Read the Background Essay

1. DESCRIBE how fossil are formed and give examples

Watch the video

1. What happened to Lucy? What’s her story?

Video: Laetoli Footprints

Read the Background Essay

1. Explain how the Laetoli Footprints were formed and preserved

Watch the video

2. Why are the Laetoli Footprint so important for evolutionary biologists and how old are they?

Video: Evolving Ideas – How do we know Evolution happens?

Read the Background Essay

1. Write an essay explaining the fossil evidence that supports that evolutionary idea that “whales have descended from land mammals.”

Watch the video:

1. How do fossils support evolution?

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.lp_howevowork/

1. Explain how evolution works.
2. New species arise through natural selection. LIST and EXPLAIN the four processes of natural selection.
3. How are “competition” and “natural selection” related?