Virginia SOL LS.11

LS.11 is a Standards of Learning science standard. These are the key ideas and practices under it.

• LS.11.a

  mutation, adaptation, natural selection, and extinction change populations

• LS.11.b

  the fossil record, genetic information, and anatomical comparisons provide evidence for evolution

• LS.11.c

  environmental factors and genetic variation, influence survivability and diversity of organisms.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students explain how inherited differences affect which organisms survive and reproduce when conditions change. They use fossils, DNA evidence, and body structures to support explanations of how groups change across generations.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

A student can identify a helpful inherited trait and predict how its frequency will shift over generations. The student can use several forms of evidence to explain adaptation or extinction without claiming that individuals changed by choice.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students often say individual organisms evolve because they need to, rather than populations changing over generations. They may assume mutations are always harmful or purposeful. They may also equate fitness with strength and think acquired traits are inherited.

04

How to Assess It

Exit ticket: A beetle population has green and brown inherited color. After drought darkens the soil, predict the population after five generations and explain the roles of variation, predation, and reproduction.

1. 01

   Scatter two colors of paper beetles on matching and contrasting backgrounds, let students act as predators, then graph survivors across three generations.

2. 02

   Respond in writing to whether an individual rabbit evolves during its lifetime or its population evolves across generations, then defend the claim with evidence.

3. 03

   Play Evidence Match: teams pair fossil, DNA, and limb diagrams with relatedness claims, earning a point only after explaining each match.

4. 04

   Analyze a hospital antibiotic-resistance graph and explain how resistant bacteria become more common after repeated antibiotic use.

• LS.8

  The student will investigate and understand that ecosystems, communities, populations, and organisms are dynamic and change over time. Key ideas include

• 2.4

  The student will investigate and understand that plants and animals undergo a series of orderly changes as they grow and develop. Key ideas include

• LS.6

  The student will investigate and understand that populations in a biological community interact and are interdependent. Key ideas include

• K.10

  The student will investigate and understand that change occurs over time. Key ideas include