Find a
Resource
Select grade level(s) Select resource type(s) Select collection(s) Select standard(s) Skip navigation Digital Library for Earth System Education
Digital Library for Earth System Education
Home
New to DLESE?
Search tips
Educational resources > Find a resource > Resource description
Natural Selection: A Cumulative Process
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/ns.cum.l.html
From DLESE Community Collection (DCC)
Comment on this resource
A common criticism of natural selection is: How can it produce novel complex useful structures by pure random chance? Darwin argued that selection is not a random process, and furthermore, it is cumulative. This lesson provides a way for students to actually compare the cumulative non-random selection of Darwin with the non-cumulative version so often erroneously implied. Students attempt to produce a full sequence of 13 cards of one suit (ace - to king). This must be done by shuffling the suit of cards for each round, then checking the cards. Half the teams must look for the full sequence each time, and repeat the process until this is accomplished. The other teams start to build their sequence by pulling the ace when it first appears as the top card, then adding to the stack whenever the next card for the sequence is shuffled to the top. Discussion reveals how the second method mimics Darwinian natural selection, while the first does not.
Intended for grade levels:
  • Middle (6-8)
  • High (9-12)
Type of resource:
  • For the classroom:
    • Lesson plan
Subject:
  • Biology
Technical requirements:
No specific technical requirements, just a browser required
Cost / Copyright:
No cost
Copyright 2002 ENSI (Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes). This material may be copied only for noncommercial classroom teaching purposes, and only if this source is clearly cited.
DLESE Catalog ID: DLESE-000-000-004-808
Educational standards:
  • National Science Education Standards (NSES):
    • 5-8:
      • Unifying concepts and processes:
        • Change, constancy, and measurement
        • Evidence, models, and explanation
        • Systems, order, and organization
      • A - Science as inquiry:
        • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
        • Understanding about scientific inquiry
      • C - Life science:
        • Diversity and adaptations of organisms
        • Reproduction and heredity
      • G - History and nature of science:
        • Nature of science
    • 9-12:
      • Unifying concepts and processes:
        • Change, constancy, and measurement
        • Evidence, models, and explanation
        • Evolution and equilibrium
        • Systems, order, and organization
      • C - Life science:
        • Biological evolution
      • G - History and nature of science:
        • Nature of scientific knowledge
Resource contact / Creator / Publisher:
Publisher: Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes


Author: Werner G. Heim