Natural Selection: Understanding the Driving Force Behind Evolution

Natural selection is a challenging topic for many students to grasp. As a key player in evolution, it is important that students be able to understand how the process works. This unit is designed for high school students studying biology. Through various lab activities such as the evolution of pom-poms and an eye simulation, students will summarize how heritable variations can affect allele frequency in a population. Group work and a variety of visual and kinesthetic techniques will be employed to allow even students with limited language ability the opportunity to experience natural selection.