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SavannahYear 8
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ScienceInheritance, variation and survival32 min★★ difficulty

Chapter 3: Adaptation and competition

An adaptation is useful only in a particular environment. Thick fur helps in cold mountains but costs energy in a warming habitat.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Biology: genetics and evolution: Understand changes in the environment that may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand changes in the environment that may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction

Key learning points

  • • What adaptation means
  • • Competition
  • • Selection over generations
  • • Avoid the purpose trap

This lesson at a glance

  • 32 minutes
  • 15 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

changesenvironmentindividualswithinspecies

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 15 · Discover7%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 15

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Chapter 3: Adaptation and competition

An English teaching video on this topic from FuseSchool - Global Education. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand changes in the environment that may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 15

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · What adaptation means

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 15

Learn

What adaptation means

An adaptation is an inherited feature that improves survival or reproduction in a particular environment. Structural adaptations include camouflage; behavioural adaptations include migration; physiological adaptations include producing concentrated urine.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 15

Learn

Competition

Organisms compete when resources are limited. Animals may compete for food, territory and mates; plants compete for light, water, minerals and space. Better-adapted individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 15

Quick check

Which is an adaptation?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 15

Quick check

What do plants compete for?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 15

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 15

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Selection over generations

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 15

Learn

Selection over generations

If a useful inherited variation helps its bearer reproduce, the allele may become more common in later generations. Populations change over generations; individual organisms do not evolve during their lifetime.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 15

Learn

Avoid the purpose trap

Organisms do not develop features because they need them. Variation already exists, and environmental conditions affect which individuals leave more offspring.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 15

Quick check

What changes during evolution by natural selection?

12

Challenge round

Part 12 of 15

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

13

Challenge round

Part 13 of 15

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

An adaptation is an inherited feature that improves survival or reproduction in a particular ____.

Better-adapted ____ are more likely to survive and reproduce.

14

Mastery quiz

Part 14 of 15

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Chapter 3: Adaptation and competition

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which is an adaptation?

  2. 2. What do plants compete for?

  3. 3. What changes during evolution by natural selection?

15

Lesson round-up

Part 15 of 15

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

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Games

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Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

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Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Why the school greenhouse failed

A science club grew tomato plants in the school greenhouse. In June the plants grew well: leaves were dark green and the fruit set quickly. In July the club went away for two weeks and left the greenhouse door shut. When they came back, the leaves were curled and pale and most of the fruit had dropped.

The club had a data logger inside. It showed the temperature reached 46 °C on several afternoons and the soil moisture fell close to zero. The club knew photosynthesis needs light, water and carbon dioxide, and that enzymes in a plant work best in a narrow range of temperature. Above that range the enzymes stop working properly.

The club repeated the summer with the door propped open and a water bottle drip on each pot. Temperature peaked at 31 °C and the plants survived.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Name the variable the club changed the second time, and one variable they kept the same.
  2. Explain, using the words photosynthesis and enzymes, why the plants were damaged in July.
  3. Write a conclusion for the club's report, saying how far the evidence supports it.

  • Method and results

    Writing

    Write the aim, what you changed, what you measured and what you kept the same, then record your results in a table.

    1 page + results table

  • Conclusion

    Writing

    Explain what your results show and why, using the scientific words from the lesson. Say how you know you can trust them.

    6–8 sentences

  • Labelled diagram

    Diagram

    Draw the apparatus or the process in pencil, label it fully, and photograph it.

    1 labelled diagram

  • Reading and notes

    Reading

    Read the lesson text again and write the key ideas in your own words.

    Half a page of notes

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 15 · Watch & discover

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    Understand changes in the environment that may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction

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