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OpenSciEd Biology + Earth & Space Unit 4: Natural Selection & Evolution of Populations Teacher Edition
Author(s): NATIONAL CENTER FOR
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 264
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OpenSciEd High School addresses all high school NGSS standards. This comprehensive science curriculum empowers students to question, design, investigate, and solve the world around them.
- Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problems
- Driven by Student Questions - Storyline based on students’ questions and ideas
- Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence
- Collaborative - class and teacher figure out ideas together
- Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all
The OpenSciEd model uses a storyline approach, introducing phenomena that anchors storylines developing disciplinary core ideas, concepts, and science/engineering practices. Students are encouraged to dive deep into key points and solve problems through five activities.
B.4 Natural Selection & Evolution of Populations: How does urbanization affect nonhuman populations, and how can we minimize harmful effects?
This unit on natural selection and evolution of populations focuses on the phenomenon of increasing urbanization around the world and the impact of that change on nonhuman populations. Students investigate case studies that investigate fragmentation, poison, and proximity to humans as selection pressures that affect the relative fitness of individuals with particular anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits in a population. Through investigations with complex data sets, they figure out how genetic diversity in a population allows populations to adapt to changes encountered in urban environments.
Students apply their knowledge of evolution by natural selection to explain why small, fragmented populations can be more vulnerable to change than large populations. They investigate the effectiveness of various human-engineered designs in reducing the effects of fragmentation on nonhuman populations. Students apply their knowledge to evaluate proposed design solutions for urban growth in Buckeye, Arizona, one of the fastest-growin
Unit Overview
Unit Storyline
Teacher Background Knowledge
Home Communication
Lesson 1: What is the effect of increasing urbanization on nonhuman populations?
Lesson 2: Why does hawksbeard make fewer feathery seeds in cities?
Lesson 3: Is poison a selection pressure?
Lesson 4: What causes populations of city juncos to be bolder than mountain juncos?
Lesson 5: How can we make sense of the way urbanization could have caused changes in hawksbeard, rat, and junco populations?
Lesson 6: Can we apply what we know about evolution by natural selection to another phenomenon?
Lesson 7: What happens when nonhuman populations are harmed by urbanization and what can we do about it?
Lesson 8: How can fragmentation lead to lower genetic diversity?
Lesson 9: How can we plan urban areas to protect genetic diversity in nonhuman populations?
Lesson 10: How can we use what we know about natural selection to design cities that support resilient populations and ecosystems?
Lesson 11: Can we apply what we know about natural selection and genetic diversity to a novel phenomenon?
Unit B.4 Teacher Reference Materials
Unit B.4 Lesson-Specific Teacher Materials
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
OpenSciEd® was launched to improve the supply of and address the demand for high-quality, open-source, full course science instructional materials. The goals of OpenSciEd are to ensure any science teacher, anywhere, can access and download freely available, high quality, locally adaptable materials. Though the goal of providing full course materials is still a couple of years away, OpenSciEd is releasing six-week units of instruction as they are completed and externally evaluated as quality by Achieve’s Science Peer Review Panel. OpenSciEd classroom materials are an open education resource and therefore free to download, copy, use, and/or modify. You can download the instructional materials free of charge at Access Materials page on the OpenSciEd website. In an effort to lower barriers for all educators to use OpenSciEd, Kendall Hunt and OpenSciEd have partnered to sell high quality printed books, professional learning and lab kits.