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This is a lesson plan designed to explain three evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow. The lesson plan consists of a brief review about mutations and DNA, a PowerPoint discussion about the three evolutionary processes, and a hands-on activity. The activity is designed to help the students understand how populations change over time due to different traits in individuals in a population, as well as how to identify the different evolutionary processes in a population.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students simulate the founder effect on Tristan Da Cunha island. The island is located in the Southern Atlantic Ocean between South America and the southern part of Africa. It is the most isolated island on earth. The island's population is is 268 people and there are now 80 families that live in the island. Students will explore genetic drift (bottleneck and founder effect) and the importance of genetic variation in a population.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use the real-world example of Hurricane Opal wiping out the beach mouse population from Shell Island in 1995. Students will identify the environmental pressures that led to the differentiation of the Choctawhatchee beach mouse from the mainland population (St. Andrew beach mouse) as natural selection. They will examine the beach mouse population on this island immediately following the hurricane as an example of genetic drift, and the re-population of the island as gene flow. Students will then track changes in the population from the initial re-population following the hurricane to the current population and relate this to natural selection.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn how sexual selection leads to the evolution of species by exploring how courtship rituals lead to the selection of traits in a population.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students practice modeling the processes of genetic drift, gene flow, the founder effect and natural selection using a population of colored pony beads.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will study the concept of speciation and predict an island habitat"s biodiversity based on the island's size and distance from the mainland.

Type: Lesson Plan

Explore mechanisms of evolutionary change other than natural selection such as mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Interested in how evolution happens? Drift into this video and go with the flow.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Scientists know all dogs descended from the gray wolf, but they don't know exactly how that happened. In this activity, students will engage in a card game simulation to learn how selective pressures can affect an organism's evolution.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

In this lesson, students use colored discs to simulate changes in population allele frequencies that occur due to evolutionary processes. They first show that allele frequencies do not change when only random mating occurs in a population. Then they demonstrate the effects of natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, and mutation on population allele frequencies. 

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the discovery of an ancient fish that provides scientists with a "missing link" in the fossil record, helping them understand when and how organisms transitioned from boneless, jawless organisms into the fish that dominate the oceans today. The text details the adaptations these ancient fish had and draws connections to adaptations found in later species.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how scientists have discovered a species of Oncilla (little tiger cats) in Northeastern Brazil, which are a genetically different species than those in the rest of South America.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes a mouflon population located on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. This population of sheep was transplanted to Haute Island over 50 years ago. Recent studies show that the population has maintained its genetic diversity. This finding challenges scientists' beliefs about the theories of genetic drift and shows the power of natural selection.

Type: Text Resource

This TED Ed video explains the mechanisms of evolutionary change: change in population size, sexual selection, mutation, gene flow, and natural selection.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This simulation shows the spread of a favorable mutation through a population of pocket mice. Even a small selective advantage can lead to a rapid evolution of the population.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation