Evolution (Chapters 4 & 5) (10 Days)

Unit 1 Animal Evolution

Enduring Understanding: The scientific theory of evolution by means of natural selection is a fundamental concept underlying all of biology. All organisms change over time because they are locked in a struggle for existence whereby those organisms better adapted to their immediate environment are more likely to survive and leave more offspring. Essential Questions State Benchmark from Course Description SC.912.L.15.13 Describe the conditions required for natural selection, including: overproduction of offspring, inherited variation, and the struggle to survive, which result in differential reproductive success.  Students will understand that organic evolution is the change of a population over time.  What is the theory  Students will understand that adaptive radiation is the formation of new of evolution by forms from an ancestral species in response to differing habitats, by natural selection? investigating Darwin’s discovery of the Galapagos Finches. (3 days)  Students will compare natural selection to artificial selection and understand that both deal with traits being favored within environmentally limited populations.  Students will understand the significance of adaptation in the process of evolutionary change and investigate this using the example of the Arctic Hare (Lepus articus). Honors Extension:  Students will compare and contrast the work of Darwin and Lamarack noting that Lamarck thought that changes were acquired during the life of a parent organism and then transmitted to their offspring while Darwin deducted that changes were already present in the parent organisms, and that the best adapted to that situation survived to breed, which meant that those genetic changes become common in the following generations. Enduring Understanding: Microevolution is defined as the change of allele frequencies within a population. Macroevolution is defined as evolutionary change at the species level or higher, that is, the formation of new species. Evidence that macroevolution occurs include fossils, biochemical molecules, anatomical structures, and developmental processes. Essential Questions State Benchmark from Course Description Honors Extension(s) SC.912.L.15.3 Describe how biological diversity is increased by the origin of new  Bulleted Student Learning Goals (written species and how it is decreased by the natural process of from the perspective of the student) extinction.  Students will know that microevolution involves change in allelic frequency in populations over time and  How does macroevolution involves large-scale changes that result in Microevolution differ extinction and formation of new species. from Macroevolution?  Students will understand the various evidence of (0.5 days) macroevolutionary change (Biogeography, Paleontology, and Analogy & Homology – Comparative Anatomy {vestigial  What evidence is there structures, ancestral patterns of vertebrate forelimbs}, for Macroevolution? Molecular Biology, and Developmental patterns) and use this (2.5 days) to analyze the Big-Cat phylogeny. Honors Extension:  Students will understand that Molecular Clock is a technique in molecular evolution that uses fossil constraints and rates of molecular change to deduce the time in geologic history when two species or other taxa diverged.  Students will define Homeotic Genes. Enduring Understanding: Individuals do not evolve, populations evolve. Changes occur at the level of the genes. When sufficient beneficial changes have occurred, new species are produced. Essential Questions State Benchmark from Course Description Honors Extension(s) SC.912.L.15.14 Discuss mechanisms of evolutionary change other than natural selection such  Bulleted Student as genetic drift and gene flow. Learning Goals (written  Students will define population as a group of organisms of the same from the perspective of species usually found in a clearly defined geographical area. the student)  Students will define gene pool as the total variety of genes and alleles How does Genetic Drift and present in a sexually reproducing population. Gene Flow contribute to  Students will recognize that a population whose gene pool shows evolutionary change? ( 2 days) consistent change from generation to generation is undergoing evolutionary change.  Students understand that population size, genetic drift and neutral evolution are all mechanisms of evolution.  Students recognize that genetic drift refers to the fact that variation in gene frequencies within populations can occur by chance rather than by natural selection which can lead to a loss in genetic diversity.  Students will describe the founder effect as a phenomenon which occurs when a small population becomes split off from the parent population, it is not truly representative of the parent population since some alleles may be absent in the small population.  Students will use the example of the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) to describe the bottleneck effect.  Students will define gene flow as changes in relative allelic frequency from the migration of individuals and how a lack of this has led to the African elephants being separated into two distinct species. Honors Extension:  Students will investigate The Hardy-Weinberg Theorem and note that if these conditions are not met, then microevolution DOES NOT occur. Gradualism.