How Helpful Traits Get Passed On
Aligned to MS-LS4-4 — Next Generation Science Standards.
What this lesson teaches
Individuals in a population vary because of their genes. When a trait helps an individual survive and reproduce in its environment, that individual passes the trait to more offspring, so the helpful trait becomes more common over generations.
Worked example
In a field of speckled and plain beetles, birds spot the plain ones more easily and eat them; the speckled beetles survive to reproduce, so over several generations most beetles in the field are speckled.
Practice questions
- Scatter colored beads on a patterned cloth and see which colors are hardest to spot.
- Model several generations of beetles where the easy-to-see ones are removed each round.
- Explain, using evidence from your model, why a genetic variation that aids survival becomes more common over time.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Cómo se transmiten los rasgos útiles
Los individuos de una población varían debido a sus genes. Cuando un rasgo ayuda a un individuo a sobrevivir y reproducirse en su entorno, ese individuo transmite el rasgo a más descendientes, así que el rasgo útil se vuelve más común a lo largo de las generaciones.
Ejemplo: En un campo con escarabajos moteados y lisos, las aves detectan más fácilmente a los lisos y se los comen; los escarabajos moteados sobreviven para reproducirse, así que tras varias generaciones la mayoría de los escarabajos del campo son moteados.
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