Virginia SOL LS.11.c
The Standard
environmental factors and genetic variation, influence survivability and diversity of organisms.
Virginia Standards of Learning for Science · The student will investigate and understand that populations of organisms can change over time. Key ideas include
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain why some inherited traits help organisms survive and reproduce under particular conditions. They predict how trait frequencies may shift when conditions change.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a population with varied traits, students identify the selection pressure and connect a helpful trait to reproductive success. They use data to predict population changes across generations.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often say individual organisms change because they need to. They may assume every difference is inherited or that survival alone, rather than reproduction, causes population change. They may confuse diversity with population size.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A beetle population has green and brown inherited colors, and birds more easily spot green beetles on dark soil. Predict the population after several generations and explain why.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Scatter colored paper dots on two backgrounds, let students collect visible dots, then graph which colors remain after repeated rounds.
Ask students to write why a helpful inherited trait may become more common without any individual choosing to change.
Run a card game where habitat cards change and trait cards determine which organisms reproduce each round.
Examine antibiotic resistance data and explain how antibiotic use changes the proportion of resistant bacteria over generations.
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Printable LS.11.c Worksheet
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Related Standards
- LS.7.b
physical and behavioral characteristics enable organisms to survive within a specific ecosystem.
- LS.9.c
variations in biotic and abiotic factors can change ecosystems.
- LS.7
The student will investigate and understand that adaptations support an organism’s survival in an ecosystem. Key ideas include
- LS.8.b
changes in the environment may increase or decrease population size; and
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