Natural Selection Kit

Product Details
With this kit, students go hands on with the classic investigative phenomena of changes in the frequency of dark and light moths in 19th-century England's peppered moth population. Ideal for teaching natural selection, population genetics, and the Hardy-Weinberg principle.

To uncover an explanation of the phenomenon, students will:

• Formulate an initial claim of the phenomenon
• Simulate 5 generations of moth reproduction to gather evidence on genotype frequencies
• Compare the evidence gathered to calculated Hardy-Weinberg frequencies
• Evaluate and revise their initial claims based on the evidence gained

Completing this activity will enhance your students understanding of population genetics and reinforce their ability to solve Hardy-Weinberg problems. Kit includes enough materials for 10 lab groups. Carolina Kits 3D®—Labs that use phenomena to support NGSS and 3-dimensional instruction.

Time Requirement
Total, 195 minutes. Teacher prep and pre-lab, 65 minutes. Investigation, 100 minutes. Assessment, 30 minutes.

Digital Resources
Includes 1-year access to digital resources that support 3-dimensional instruction for NGSS. Digital resources may include a teacher’s manual and student guide, pre-lab activities and setup videos, phenomenon videos, simulations, and post-lab analysis and assessments.

Performance Expectation(s)
HS-LS4-3
HS-LS4-4

Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns

Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS4.B: Natural Selection

Science and Engineering Practices
Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Learning Objectives

• Model how natural selection affects a population's genetic equilibrium when an environmental change is introduced.
• Apply concepts of statistics and probability to calculate and analyze allele, genotype, and phenotype frequencies in a population.
• Use mathematical reasoning to evaluate whether a population is in the process of natural selection.
• Make a claim, supported by evidence, about changes in the distribution of traits in the peppered moth population.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills
Students should understand basic Mendelian genetics. They should be familiar with the following terms: traits, genes, alleles, recessive, dominant, homozygous, heterozygous, genotype, and phenotype. They should also be able to solve polynomial equations and simultaneous algebraic equations.