KS3 ~ Year 8 ~ Natural Selection

This lesson is designed for the KS3 Year 8 Science course, specifically the B2 1.3 unit on Adaptation & Inheritance.

For more lessons designed for KS3 and KS4 please visit my shop at: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience.

The lesson begins with a ‘Think > Pair > Share’ activity which requires students to consider the definition for the term ‘evolution’. After students have had some time to talk about this, their ideas can be shared with the class and the answer can be revealed for students to check and correct their work.

This leads into an introduction to the fossil record as means of evidence for evolution, students will then need watch a video on the formation of fossils - during which they will answer a set of questions. Students can now mark and assess their work using the mark scheme provided.

Students will now be introduced to the idea of ‘Natural Selection’, they will be told the mechanism by which this works by using the example of girraffes with longer and shorter necks. Students will now be asked to complete a cartoon strip to summarise this process, once this task has been completed students will be able to mark and assess their work using the answers provided in the PowerPoint presentation.

The last part of the lesson students will be shown a video on examples of natural selection in action. Whilst watching this video, students will need to answer a set of questions, once this has been completed students can self-assess their work using the answers provided.

The plenary task requires students to write three quiz questions to test their peers on what they have learned this lesson.

All resources are included at the end of the presentation. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)