Evolution & Natural Selection
📋 What it is
Over many generations, helpful traits become more common because those individuals survive and reproduce.
🗣️ Coach says
Evolution is slow change across generations. In any group, some individuals have traits that help them survive and have babies (faster, better camouflaged, etc.). Those traits get passed on more, so over long time the whole population shifts. Nature “selects” what works.
🧠 Memory hook
Helpful trait → survive → more babies → trait spreads. That’s natural selection.
😂 Giggle
What did the vacuole say to the cytoplasm?
"I need more space — I'm storing a lot of stuff in here!"
😲 Whoa!
The peppered moth turned mostly dark within decades during the Industrial Revolution — dark moths hid better on soot-covered trees, so they survived and multiplied.
✅ Quick check: Why do helpful traits become more common over generations?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Individuals with helpful traits survive and reproduce more, passing those traits to more offspring over time.
Natural selection favours traits that improve survival and reproduction.
🪄 Trick question: Does an animal “decide” to evolve a useful trait during its life?
Careful — think it through, then reveal.
No — individuals don’t choose to evolve; traits already vary, and the helpful ones simply survive and spread over generations.
Evolution acts on existing variation across populations, not on an individual’s wishes.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Pick an animal and name ONE trait that helps it survive (a cheetah’s speed, a moth’s camouflage). That trait was “selected”.