Interactive Assessment for Natural Selection and Adaptation

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Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — General High School — AP/IB College

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Description

Several questions are embedded within the short film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation, which uses the rock pocket mouse as a living example of natural selection.

This film uses the rock pocket mouse as a living example of Darwin’s process of natural selection. It highlights the research of Michael Nachman, who has quantified predation on rock pocket mice and identified adaptive changes in coat-color genes that allow the mice to travel under the radar of hungry predators.

This version of the film with embedded questions contains automatic pause points, during which students answer questions about the film to assess their understanding of the concepts presented. After answering all the questions, students can view and print their answers.

Student Learning Targets

Describe what a mutation is and how it may affect an individual’s survival and reproduction depending on environment.
Explain how variation, selection, and time fuel the process of evolution through natural selection.

Estimated Time

Within one 50-minute class period.

Key Terms

camouflage, melanin, melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), mutation, rock pocket mouse, selective pressure, trait, variation

Primary Literature

Nachman, Michael W., Hopi E. Hoekstra, and Susan L. D’Agostino. “The Genetic Basis of Adaptive Melanism in Pocket Mice.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 100, 9 (2003): 5268–5273.