Mission 7 of 16

Evolution & Genetics

📋 What it is

Evolution works on genetic variation: helpful gene versions spread over generations.

🗣️ Coach says

Genetics is the engine of evolution. Mutations create variation; natural selection favours the versions that help survival; and those genes spread through a population over generations. Evolution isn’t random luck — it’s genetics plus selection acting over long time.

🧠 Memory hook

Mutations make variation → selection favours the helpful genes → they spread. Evolution.

😂 Giggle

Why was the mutation always the class clown?
Because it loved to change things up!

😲 Whoa!

Bacteria can evolve resistance to antibiotics in DAYS — a real-time example of genetics and natural selection at work.

✅ Quick check: How does genetic variation drive evolution?

Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.

🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)

Pick an animal trait that helps survival (speed, camouflage). Imagine the gene for it spreading over generations.

⭐ Do the round to earn your star →

🤸 Brain break: Spread-it: hold up one finger (a helpful gene), then many — “it spreads through the population.”