Mississippi Science L.8.4A

L.8.4A is a cluster heading. These are the individual standards under it.

• L.8.4A.1

  Use various scientific resources to analyze the historical findings of Charles Darwin to explain basic principles of natural selection.

• L.8.4A.2

  Construct explanations about how genetic factors and environmental factors (e.g., food intake, interactions with other organisms, etc.) lead to the growth, surv...

01

What Students Need to Do

Students compare Darwin’s field notes with island maps to study differences among organisms. They explain how inherited traits and conditions such as food supply affect survival and reproduction.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Given birds with different inherited beaks, a student predicts which can eat the available seeds and have offspring. They explain why that beak type may become more common over generations.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think a bird grows a new beak because its food changes, then passes that change to its young. They may count survival alone as natural selection, even if the bird has no offspring.

04

How to Assess It

Exit ticket: A drought leaves only hard seeds. Birds have inherited thin or thick beaks. Which birds are more likely to leave offspring, and what happens after several generations?

1. 01

   Give pairs wide and narrow tweezers to pick up mixed seeds, then tally which beak type reaches a food target.

2. 02

   Read a short excerpt from Darwin’s Galápagos mockingbird notes beside an island map; ask how island conditions could favor inherited differences.

3. 03

   Deal inherited beak cards, change the available seed cards after two rounds, and graph which birds leave offspring.

4. 04

   Use a sample pest-count table from before and after spraying to explain why inherited pesticide resistance becomes more common.

• L.6.3

  Students will demonstrate an understanding of the relationships between survival, environmental changes, and diversity as they relate to the interactions of org...

• L.2.4

  Students will demonstrate an understanding of the ways animals adapt to their environment in order to survive.

• L.8.2B

  Students will demonstrate an understanding of the differences in inherited and acquired characteristics and how environmental factors (natural selection) and th...

• L.3.2

  Students will demonstrate an understanding that through reproduction, the survival and physical features of plants and animals are inherited traits from parent ...