Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
Knowledge
Students know:
- Common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence including:
- Information derived from DNA sequences.
- Similarities of the patterns of amino acid sequences.
- Patterns in the fossil record.
- Pattern of anatomical and embryological similarities.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Examine historical explanations for the diversity of life on earth, including the work of Lamarck, Wallace, and Darwin.
- Analyze parasitic, mutualistic and commensalistic relationships to investigate large scale evolutionary strategies such as coevolution, convergent evolution and divergent evolution.
- Analyze fossil records, comparing the structure of extinct to existing species of living things.
- Analyze DNA or amino acid sequences of closely related and distantly related organisms.
- Construct a cladogram or phylogenetic tree using molecular sequences and fossil records.
- Compare and contrast vestigial and homologous structures in modern organisms.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- Genetic information, like the fossil record, provides evidence of evolution. DNA sequences vary among species, but there are many overlaps—multiple lines of descent can be inferred by comparing the DNA sequences of different organisms.
- There are multiple lines of empirical evidence that support biological evolution.
Vocabulary
- Biogeography
- Parasitism
- Mutualism
- Commensalism
- Co-evolution
- convergent evolution
- divergent
- cladogram
- phylogenetic tree
- vestigial structures
- homologous structures
- embryonic
- genetic conservation
