Biology PD 4

Where Weve Been:

This past week we have been focused on natural selection and evolution. Last week we started
off natural selection by doing a Gizmo (online simulation) about the Galapagos finches and how
they adapted to different rainfall conditions. We followed up with notes on natural selection
before moving into our Origami birds lab at the beginning of this week. In that lab, students
mutated and selected paper birds that they build and flew to model natural selection. This lab
was designed to pull together the ideas of mutations, gene expression, and natural selection.
We took a quiz on these three concepts yesterday. Today we are going to dive into some of the
evidence for evolution now that weve discussed how it happens.

Thursday, November 16th:

CAS HS Science Standard 9:
Evolution occurs as the heritable characteristics of a population change across generations and
can lead populations to become better adapted to their environment.

Learning Target:
Investigate the different types of evidence that support the theory of evolution.

Success Criteria:
I will be able to explain how 2 different types of evidence support the theory of evolution.

Agenda: (90 minutes)

- QOD (10 minutes)
- Evidence for Evolution Stations (75 minutes)
- Instructions (10 min) & 4 Stations (approx. 15 min each)
- Exit Ticket (5 minutes)

Materials:
- Station Materials
- Bone samples, colored pencils, dissecting scope, wing specimen, embryo
specimen, embryo poster, horse tooth cards, horse tooth chart and answer key,
fossils, yellow geologic time cards, analogous structure images, cladogram and
amino acid sequences, clay, index cards.
- Station Instructions and Student Handouts
- Student Laptops & Google Classroom

Differentiation:
Within the groups, students have the opportunity to take on different roles. These give students
the opportunity to help each other in their own areas of strength. In addition, students who may
be at a higher level have the opportunity to help their peers understand. Some stations are
easier than others to work through so each station will have varying degrees of challenge for the
students. Those students who finish quickly have an extension video to be watch on evolution.
During this time I will be able to provide students with writing and processing supports for the
critical thinking questions of the lab.

Assessments:
- Daily Questions of the Day (QOD): These are 3-5 test like questions that give students
the opportunity to assess their own understanding of the content up to date. The
questions are self-graded (Google Form) so students get immediate feedback if they do
not know something. Todays QOD also has a video about some of the evidence in
humans for evolution to incite inquiry about our lab today as well as a mid-quarter
self-reflection question.
- Evidence for Evolution Stations: This is an inquiry-based lesson so students will be using
specimens, images, and models to understand the different types of evidence we use to
support evolution. Each station has a worksheet with guiding questions which will be
graded either for completion or for accuracy depending on how actively the students are
asking questions and participating during the stations.
- Teacher Circulation: As always, the majority of my assessments are formative and come
from my circulation around the room to answer questions and catch misunderstands or
misbehaviors as they are occurring.
- Exit Ticket: Todays exit ticket asks the students to use 2 different types of evidence from
todays stations to support the theory of evolution. This corresponds to their success
criteria for the day and will help me evaluate their understanding of the big picture ideas
of the lab. In addition, they will need to practice scientific writing by using
claim-evidence-reasoning formatting.

Where Were Going:

We will continue with this lab tomorrow so that students can rotate through the other half of the
stations they didnt get to today. This is the last piece before we review and test on gene
expression and evolution next week.