Mini Lesson Plan for Group Discussion

● Discussion Idea: All dog breeds are descended from wolves. If you had a bunch of
wolves and wanted a chihuahua, how would you create one?
○ Have students talk in groups for 5 minutes then start group discussion.
○ Discuss group discussion norms and rules before starting
○ As students are talking about their ideas, write each idea on the board for them to
keep track.
○ Possible ideas:
■ Selectively breed small wolves with short faces and wirey tan hair for
many generations.
■ Raising wolves in warmer environments to lose thick hair coat
■ Give food so they become less aggressive and don’t need such big teeth.
■ Environments cause individuals to evolve and traits evolve from their
use/disuse
■ When you choose small, tan wolves to breed, you’re selecting wolves with
these specific DNA sequences.
○ After all ideas are said and everyone is in agreement, ask students whether this
is an example of artificial selection or natural selection.
■ How is this different from natural selection?
○ Show the next slide with pictures of whales and ask students how natural
selection works in nature. Whales used to walk on land, how did natural selection
affect whales for them to be able to swim?
○ Possible ideas:
■ The whales that had shorter legs and enlarged hands and feet with a
more muscular tail were better suited to swim and adapt to the new
environment. They were able to survive and reproduce, passing on their
traits.
■ Move tails up and down instead of back and forth
■ Stopped using hind limbs and these eventually shrink and are almost
unnoticeable - vestigial organs - lost ancestral function
○ These whales that had more favorable traits for survival were selected for and
they lived to reproduce. After generations, a new species of whales formed that
were now efficient swimmers.