Natural Selection

Read Natural Selection together and have students apply each of the four steps to the finches. Use the peppered moth graph next, and point out that its numbers are model data made up for practice.

Read about finch beaks in the 1977 Daphne Major drought and number the steps of natural selection. The directions on the page read: Read the passage and study the beaks. Then answer the questions on page 2. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade living things, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with natural selection and adaptations. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

During the 1977 drought on Daphne Major, finches with large, deep beaks could crack the hard seeds that were left, and finches with small beaks struggled. The survivors passed on their beak size, so the next generation had larger beaks, on average.

Soot darkened tree bark near English factory cities, so dark moths were hidden from birds and more of them survived to reproduce. After clean air laws reduced soot, light moths again had the advantage. Peppered Moth Data uses model numbers that follow this rise and fall.

A structural adaptation is a body part or feature, such as a duck's webbed feet. A behavioral adaptation is something an animal does, such as a groundhog hibernating. A quick test on the sheet asks whether you could see it in a photo of a resting animal.