Texas TEKS 6.13.C

Science6th GradeOrganisms and environments

The Standard

describe how variations within a population can be an advantage or disadvantage to the survival of a population as environments change.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify trait differences among members of one population. They explain how changes in food, climate, predators, or habitat can make a trait helpful or harmful to population survival.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a scenario, students name the environmental change, compare two variations, and predict which group is more likely to survive and reproduce. They support the prediction with evidence from the scenario.
Common Misconceptions: Students may say individuals develop needed traits during their lives, rather than recognizing that variations already exist. They may assume one trait is always best or that every variation affects survival. They may also confuse one individual surviving with the population surviving over time.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A drought leaves mostly large, hard seeds. How could thick and thin beaks affect which birds survive and the population over time?

Lesson moves

Use spoons, clothespins, and tweezers as beaks to gather seeds, switch seed sizes, and graph each beak type’s success.
Write: When a grassy habitat becomes rocky, which fur color might help a mouse population survive, and why?
Draw trait and environment cards, then earn a point by explaining whether the pairing helps or harms survival.
Examine pesticide resistance in insects and explain why some members survive treatment while others die.

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