SC15.7.18

Science (2015) Grade(s): 7

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Cause and Effect

Students know:

Characteristics of a species change over time (i.e., over generations) through adaptation by natural selection in response to changes in environmental conditions.
Traits that better support survival and reproduction in a new environment become more common within a population within that environment.
Traits that do not support survival and reproduction as well become less common within a population in that environment.
When environmental shifts are too extreme, populations do not have time to adapt and may become extinct.
Multiple cause-and-effect relationships exist between environmental conditions and natural selection in a population.
The increases or decreases of some traits within a population can have more than one environmental cause.

Students are able to:

Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including natural selection and traits.
Identify and use multiple valid and reliable sources of evidence to construct an explanation for natural selection and its effect on traits in a population.
Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation for natural selection and its effect on traits in a population.

Students understand that:

Adaptation by natural selection acting over generations is one important process by which species change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions.
Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common; those that do not become less common. Thus, the distribution of traits in a population changes.