Mississippi Science L.8.4A.2
The Standard
- L.8.4A
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the process of natural selection, in which variations in a population increase some individuals' likelihood of surviving and reproducing in a changing environment.
Construct explanations about how genetic factors and environmental factors (e.g., food intake, interactions with other organisms, etc.) lead to the growth, survival, and reproduction of organisms in natural selection.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Adaptation and Diversity
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how inherited traits and conditions like food supply and predators affect growth, survival, and reproduction. They use evidence to show why some inherited traits become more common over generations.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given beetle color, ground color, and bird predation data, a student can explain which beetles are likely to leave more offspring. They can also explain how scarce food may reduce growth and reproduction in both groups.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a beetle turns brown because it lives on brown soil, then passes that change to its offspring. They may also think a helpful trait guarantees survival, even when food is scarce.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: On bare soil, birds eat 8 of 10 green beetles and 2 of 10 brown beetles. Which inherited color may become more common over generations, and how might scarce food affect both groups?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place 20 green and 20 brown paper beetles on brown cloth; have a partner collect visible beetles, then double the survivors to model offspring.
Ask why brown beetles might leave more offspring than green beetles on bare soil, using inheritance and predation in the explanation.
Give pairs cards showing thick-furred and thin-furred rabbits in snow or heat; have them predict which rabbits leave more offspring.
Read two seed packets, one labeled drought-tolerant; predict which variety might produce more seeds during a dry summer, and explain why.
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Related Standards
- L.8.4B.2
Construct written and verbal explanations to describe how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some organisms' probability of surviving and rep...
- FB.5.4
Investigate how biological adaptations and genetic variations of traits in a population enhance the probability of survival in an environment (natural selection...
- L.8.2B.1
Construct an argument based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
- BIO.4.7
Enrichment: Construct explanations for how various disease agents (bacteria, viruses, chemicals) can influence natural selection.
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