Life Science

Heredity and Adaptation

EALR 4:              Life ScienceBig Idea:            Biological Evolution (LS3)Core Content:           Heredity and AdaptationIn prior grades students learned about variations in inherited characteristics. In grades 4-5 students learn that some differences in inherited characteristics may help plants and animals survive and reproduce. Sexual reproduction results in offspring that are never identical to either of their parents and therefore contributes to a species’ ability to adapt to changing conditions. Heredity is a key feature of living plants and animals that enables changes in characteristics to be passed on and for species to change over time. Fossils provide evidence of what ancient extinct plants and animals looked like.

Teacher Resources

Formative Assessment Probes:Understanding Student Ideas, Volume 2 by Page Keeley *These books are in each building.• 4-5 LS3A "Habitat Change" Probe #19, page 143 • 4-5 LS3B " Baby Mice" Probe # 17, page 129

Lessons from Washington Grade Level Expectations Grades 4&5, published by Loose in the Lab :

o 4-5 LS3D  "The Shark Tooth Stew"o 4-5 LS3D  "Crinoid in a Cup"

Link for buying fossil shark teeth:http://www.teachersource.com/BiologyLifeScience/Fossils/FossilSharkTeeth.aspx

4-5 LS3A : In any ecosystem, some populations of organisms thrive and grow, some decline, and others do not survive at all.

What might happen in this ecosystem if the pond dried up?How would this affect the fish?  Turtle?Deer? Cattails?  Dragonfly?

List some reasons why some populations may not survive as well as others.

Why is the polar bear population declining?

4-5 LS3A

Polar bears are on the top of the food chain and there are no other animals in the north that will threaten them. 

What do polar bears eat?

During the winter months, the polar bear's favorite food is the ringed seal.  Bears will wait for hours at a ringed seal hole.  When the seal comes to the surface for air, the polar bear is ready to catch it.  When the ice melts sooner in the spring, the polar bear cannot catch the seal because seals swim too fast.

Evaluate similar populations in an ecosystem with regard to their ability to thrive and grow. 

Which bird population may be more likely to survive ?

Crows ?    Seagulls ?

4-5 LS3A

4-5 LS3B  Plants and animals inherit many characteristics from their parents. Some inherited characteristics allow organisms to better survive and reproduce in a given ecosystem.

What advantage might the baby giraffe with the longer neck have over the baby giraffe with the shorter neck?

Communicate that plants and animals inherit many characteristics (e.g., color of a flower or number of limbs at birth) from the parents of the plant or animal. 

4-5 LS3B

What characteristics do the puppies share with their mother dog?

Give examples to illustrate an inherited characteristic that would enable an organism to better survive and reproduce in a given ecosystem.

The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light coloration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-colored trees and lichens which they rested upon.

4-5 LS3B

Can you find both the light and dark colored moths?  Which one would be easiest for birds to find to eat?

Because of widespread pollution during the Industrial Revolution in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees that peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-colored moths to die off from predation. At the same time, the dark-colored moths flourished because of their ability to hide on the darkened trees.

 

Since then, with improved environmental standards, light-colored peppered moths have again become common, but the dramatic change in the peppered moth's population has remained a subject of much interest and study, and has led to the coining of the term industrial melanism to refer to the genetic darkening of species in response to pollutants.

4-5 LS3C  Some characteristics and behaviors result from an individual plant’s or animal’s interactions with the environment and are not passed from one generation to the next by heredity.

This tree has a broken limb.   Will the young trees that grow from this tree also have a broken limb?

Use an example to explain that some characteristics or behaviors result from an individual plant’s or animal’s interactions with the environment and are not passed from one generation to the next by heredity (e.g., trees can lose a limb, animals can have accidents that cause scars, people can exercise and build muscles).

Will this man's son be born with an arm like his?

4-5 LS3C

Use an example to explain that some characteristics or behaviors result from an individual plant’s or animal’s interactions with the environment and are not passed from one generation to the next by heredity (e.g., trees can lose a limb, animals can have accidents that cause scars, people can exercise and build muscles).

This woman is an accomplished violinist. Will her children be as good at playing as she is?

4-5 LS3C

4-5 LS3D Fossils provide evidence that many plant and animal species are extinct and that species have changed over time.

What may be different now on the planet compared to 60 million years ago?

Why do you think that the small horse does not live on the planet Earth any longer?

Compare and contrast fossils with one another and with living plants and animals to illustrate that fossils provide evidence that plant and animal species have changed over time.

4-5 LS3D

Show what you know!

1. List two reasons why some populations may not survive as well as others. (4-5 LS3A)

• Choose two similar animals that live in the same ecosystem.  Describe how both populations thrive and grow. (4-5 LS3A)

• List three characteristics that plants or animals inherit from their parents. (4-5 LS3B)

• Choose an inherited characteristic that might help a plant or animal survive. (4-5 LS3B)

• If both parents have tattoos on their arms, will their offspring be born with tattoos, too? (4-5 LS3C)

• Describe how we as scientists know that a plant or animal has changed from the time of dinosaurs to the present. (4-5 LSD)