https://learn.concord.org/resources/640/conflicting-selection-pressures
In this activity, you will use a computer model to observe how natural selection works when selection pressures for a trait are both positive and negative.
This activity runs entirely in a Web browser. Preferred browsers are: Google Chrome (versions 30 and above) Safari (versions 7 and above), Firefox (version 30 and above), Internet Explorer (version 10 or higher), and Microsoft Edge.
Performance Expectations
Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Students who demonstrate understanding can: Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.
Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Students who demonstrate understanding can: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
MS-LS4.B Natural Selection
Natural selection leads to the predominance of certain traits in a population, and the suppression of others.
HS-LS4.C Adaptation
Natural selection leads to adaptation, that is, to a population dominated by organisms that are anatomically, behaviorally, and physiologically well suited to survive and reproduce in a specific environment. That is, the differential survival and reproduction of organisms in a population that have an advantageous heritable trait leads to an increase in the proportion of individuals in future generations that have the trait and to a decrease in the proportion of individuals that do not.
HS-LS4.C Adaptation
Adaptation also means that the distribution of traits in a population can change when conditions change.
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to include constructing explanations and designing solutions supported by multiple sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories. Construct an explanation that includes qualitative or quantitative relationships between variables that predict phenomena.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Analyzing data in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to introducing more detailed statistical analysis, the comparison of data sets for consistency, and the use of models to generate and analyze data. Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models (e.g., computational, mathematical) in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution.
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed worlds. Use a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking at the 9–12 level builds on K–8 and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis, a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms, and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions. Use mathematical or computational representations of phenomena to describe explanations.