Teaching Natural Selection and the Genetic Code Using the Rock Pocket Mouse

This card activity can be used to elicit student understanding of change over time in a population and its environment.

To use this resource as part of this playlist, combine it with other resources in the playlist as follows:

• Have students read the introduction in the “Student Handout” for this activity.

• Have students sort the cards from the “Illustrations” document in the most logical chronological sequence.

• Show the film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation (resource 2 in this playlist) from 0:00–2:37.

• Have students answer question 2 of the “Developing an Explanation for Mouse Fur Color” activity (resource 3 in this playlist). Use this question as a pre-assessment of students’ prior understanding of natural selection, and to identify misconceptions students may have about how populations change over time.

Estimated Time: Half of a 50-minute class period.

This film describes natural selection and adaptation in populations of rock pocket mice living in the American Southwest.

To support the learning that occurs in the activities in this playlist, show the film in segments as follows:

• Show 0:00–2:37 after students complete the “Color Variation Over Time in Rock Pocket Mouse Populations” activity (resource 1 in this playlist).

• Show 2:37 to the end after introducing the explanation table in the “Developing an Explanation for Mouse Fur Color” activity (resource 3 in this playlist).

Estimated Time: 10 minutes for the film only.

In this activity, students collect and analyze evidence for each of the major conditions for evolution by natural selection to develop an explanation for how populations change over time.

To use this resource as part of this playlist:

• Have students complete all but question 2 of the “Student Handout.”

• Have students complete question 2 as a post-assessment.

Estimated Time: One-and-a-half-50-minute class periods.