Mississippi Science GEN.5.2
The Standard
- GEN.5
- Students will apply population genetic concepts to explain the variability of organisms within a population.
Explain how natural selection acts upon genetic variability within a population and may lead to changes in allelic frequencies over time and evolutionary changes in populations.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Population Genetics
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify inherited differences in a population and explain why some organisms leave more offspring in a given environment. They count alleles to show how the population changes over generations.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given counts of AA, Aa, and aa plants, a student calculates the frequency of A before and after a drought that kills aa plants. They explain why A is likely to be more common in the survivors’ offspring.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think drought gives plants the allele they need, or that an individual plant evolves during its lifetime. Some count plants carrying A instead of counting two alleles per plant.
How to Assess It
- Give students this exit ticket: A population has 10 AA, 10 Aa, and 10 aa plants. Drought kills all aa plants. Find the frequency of A before and after the drought, then explain the change.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build 10 AA, 10 Aa, and 10 aa plants with labeled allele tiles, remove aa plants during a drought, and recount A tiles.
Ask, “Did drought create the A allele?” Have students write two sentences explaining why A becomes more common among surviving plants.
Give pairs genotype-count cards and survival-rule cards; have them calculate A frequency before and after each round, then check with a key.
Show a chart of resistant bacteria before and after antibiotic treatment; ask which bacteria survived and why resistance becomes more common in later generations.
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Printable GEN.5.2 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- GEN.5.5
Enrichment: Analyze computer simulations of the effects of natural selection on allelic frequencies in a population.
- BIO.4.5
Use Darwin's Theory to explain how genetic variation, competition, overproduction, and unequal reproductive success acts as driving forces of natural selection ...
- GEN.5.3
Describe processes that cause changes in allelic frequencies (e.g., nonrandom mating, small population size, immigration and emigration, genetic drift, and muta...
- GEN.5.4
Apply the Hardy-Weinberg formula to analyze changes in allelic frequencies due to natural selection in a population. Relate these changes to the environmental f...
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