Science Task Screener

Task Title: Natural Selection & Adaptation: How Populations Change Over Time

Grade: High School

Date: 2024-06-01

Instructions

• Before you begin: Complete the task as a student would. Then, consider any support materials provided to teachers or students, such as contextual information about the task and answer keys/scoring guidance.
• Using the Task Screener: Use this tool to evaluate tasks designed for three-dimensional standards. For each criterion, record your evidence for the presence or absence of the associated indicators.

Criterion A. Tasks are driven by high-quality scenarios that are grounded in phenomena or problems.

i. Making sense of a phenomenon or addressing a problem is necessary to accomplish the task.

1. Is a phenomenon and/or problem present?

Students investigate the phenomenon of trait frequency shifts in populations under environmental pressure — a classic example of observable evolution. They must use the simulation to generate evidence about how selection pressures change population characteristics.

1. Is information from the scenario necessary to respond successfully to the task?

Yes, students must run the simulation across multiple generations, record trait distributions, and analyze how different environmental conditions produce different evolutionary outcomes.

ii. The task scenario is engaging, relevant, and accessible.

The concept of “survival of the fittest” is inherently engaging and connects to real-world topics like antibiotic resistance, pesticide resistance, and climate adaptation.

Criterion B. Tasks require students to use scientific practices.

Students construct explanations for observed patterns in population data, analyze and interpret trait frequency graphs, and use mathematical thinking to quantify selection strength.

Criterion C. Tasks require students to use Disciplinary Core Ideas.

Students apply LS4.B (Natural Selection) — the idea that differential survival and reproduction of individuals with advantageous traits leads to changes in population characteristics over generations. They also apply LS4.C (Adaptation) to explain how populations become better suited to their environments.

Criterion D. Tasks require students to use Crosscutting Concepts.

Students trace cause-and-effect relationships between environmental pressures and genetic/phenotypic shifts in populations.

Overall Recommendation

• [x] Warrants use with minimal revision
• [ ] Warrants revision before use
• [ ] Should not be used

Summary: This task successfully engages students in the core mechanism of evolution by natural selection through an interactive simulation that makes the abstract concepts of variation, differential survival, and heritability visible and measurable across generations.