Trait

Selection and
Speciation
A Complete Lesson with Hypothetical
Discussion
Gia Madonna
Mrs. Flowers
EDU 214
 Overview of Lesson
 Lesson Plan Title: Trait Selection and Speciation
 Concept/Topic to Teach: Evolution and Genetics/ Biology
 Grade Level: 9th
 General Goals:
 Explain trait selection and speciation
 Students demonstrate a grasp or complete understanding of topics
 Specific Objectives:
 Describe 3 basic modes of trait selection
 Establish difference between micro and macro-evolution
 Teach what a species is
 Teach two interpretations of speciation as well as the steps
 Teach subdivisions that lead to speciation
 Teach different types of isolation
 Have students complete online simulation
Required Materials
 Access to PowerPoint if students wish to follow along on their own device
 Access to internet for supplementary activity
Evolution by itself does not create a
new species…
Micro Evolution Macro Evolution
 A change in frequency  New species
 Fast  Slow
 ** Not a new species but changes  ** New species over MANY
from generation to generation ** generations **
Lead-In

• Me: Alright everyone, settle down. Today, we have the most captivating lesson you’ve
ever had in your life, guaranteed. But first, catch me up. How are you guys? Anything new
in your life? Any drama?

• Amado: Ms. Madonna stop trying to be cool

• Me: Sorry, it happens naturally

• Yari: There was a fight at lunch today

• Jack: A girl hit her head on Yader and broke her nose

(I would allot five minutes to this, responding to various students where I saw fit)
• Me: As much as I would like to just sit and talk to you guys all day, that’s not what I get
paid for. Today, we’ll be continuing off what we learned last class about patterns of evolution.
As always, I encourage answering and asking questions.
Content About First Slide:

 Me: Diving into the world of trait selection and speciation, it is very important
that we understand evolution by itself does not create a new species. Does
anybody know what evolution actually does?
 Janessi: It makes changes in the appearance of the organism?
 Me: Very good, you’re on the right track. Evolution just changes the
frequency of genotypes in a population, resulting sometimes in a changed
appearance, like Janessi said.
 Me: There are two different types of evolution: Macro-evolution and Micro-
evolution. That change in frequency we’re talking about it the key component
of micro-evolution. This means it’s observing change on a generation to
generation scale, meaning the genotypes are changing rapidly.
 Me: Macro-evolution, like seen in the picture, results in an entirely new
species. Compared to micro, this is slow work and takes many many
generations.
 Nayla: So basically, one way to look at it is that a ton of instances of micro-
evolution leads to one big macro evolution
 Me: That’s a great connection, and indeed true.
Review of
Evolution
 ** Evolution occurs at the
POPULATION level **
 This happens when there is a
change in the relative frequency
of alleles
 The Recipe for Evolution:
 Heritable Variation in gene pool
 Competition
 Differential reproduction
Content About Second Slide:
 Me: Lets hit a quick refresher of evolution before we move on because it is
essential to biology. It is important that you realize evolution occurs in
populations only. If one organism has a different appearance or genotype than
the rest of the organisms around it, it is a mutant, not revolutionized.
Mutants can be the start of evolution, but it will take many more generations
before you can say the organisms have evolved.
 Me: There are musts that have to be occurring for evolution to take place.
You have to have heritable variation, which means there is more than one
variation of alleles in the said gene pool. Can anyone remind me what an
allele is?
 Jesse: An allele is just a different form of a gene
 Me: Correct. For example, in a population of beetles, some of them are green
and some are brown. This would be an example of alleles. This is important
for evolution because if every organism has the same features, there is no
way change can occur.
 Me: Competition is important as well. Does anyone remember why?
 Class: mumbles but no one actually answers
 Me: Competition is important because it induces the need for change in order
to survive.
Content About Second Slide Cont.:

 Me: Lastly, we have differential reproduction. This is just a fancy term for
natural selection. Does anybody need a reminder about what natural
selection is?
 Class: No
 Me: Cool, let’s move on.
Micro-evolution: Three Basic Modes of
Trait Selections
Content About Third Slide:
 Me: In the picture you see three different graphs, one for directional selection,
one for stabilizing selection, and one for divergent selection. In the picture they
used the word “disruptive” which is just another name.
 Karen: If something like this is on a test can we use either without getting points
marked off?
 Me: Of course. Directional selection is selection against one trait specifically,
meaning the population will try to eradicate it completely. This is what most of
us think about when we think selection. Does someone want to try and give an
example of this?
 Luis: So basically like, if you look at race horses they don’t want them to be slow
right. So like, then they take the fast horses and keep breeding them over
generations, which eventually causes the population of horses to get faster and
hopefully makes slow horses less common.
 Me: Wow Luis, I’m impressed. I couldn’t of said it better myself.
 Lets move onto stabilizing selection then, unless anyone has questions of course?
 Class: No one raises their hand
 Me: Alright.. So stabilizing selection can either be called that or uhhh…brain
fart… convergent selection. What this means is that the middle is selected for.
Content About Third Slide Cont.:

 This can be confusing to understand at first, I know believe me. Lets take
Pitbull breeding for example to hopefully clear this up a little. A Pitbull that
is weak and small is more likely to get sick. On the other hand, a Pitbull that
is overly muscular and large is more likely to experience severe joint
complications and an uncomfortable life. Because of this, the middle is
selected for. A Pitbull that is neither too small or too big is ideal for it’s
physical capability. Any questions before we move on?
 Class: No one has any questions
 Disruptive selection then is when two extremes are selected for. This can
cause speciation after many generations. Speciation is the development of a
new species. Does anybody remember what this is called?
 Edwin: Macro-evolution
 Me: Good, you’re absolutely correct.
 Me: One of my favorite examples of this that I still remember from when I
was learning Biology for the first time is with moths. In the area these moths
live in, there are black rocks and white trees. Moths that are black and white
will have the easiest time living here, since they can blend in. Grey moths, on
the other hand, the ones in the middle that are selected against, would have
no way to camouflage themselves against predators. This would mold more
black and white moths into the population.
Micro and Macro-evolutions: Further
Explained
Micro-Evolutions
 The small changes in the
populations
 Can be seen within a few
generations
 Ex:
 A color becoming more common
 A population getting slower
 Averages decreasing
Macro-Evolutions
 A build up of micro-evolutions that
overtime results in a new species
 Can take hundreds of thousands of
years to occur
 Can change based on how long
generations take to complete
**Each of these both rely on the
requirements of evolution that were
discussed on the second slide**
Content About Fourth Slide:

 Me: Moving on to the next slide, I’d like to preface with the fact that pretty
much all the examples we’ve discussed have been examples of micro-
evolutions. Everything on the slide is pretty much self-explanatory, but I
would like to expand upon the timeframe of macro-evolution. On the slide, it
says that it can take hundreds of thousands of years, but that it can change
based on generational time. What this means is that some species reproduce
quicker than others, making their generational periods longer or shorter.
 Amado: Miss, Lliden is confused. Can you give an example?
 Me: Since Lliden is confused, lets take flies. We all know they have a short
lifespan and reproduce super quickly. This would mean that evolution would
happen much quicker for that population than for a population of uhhh
wildebeests.
 Me: I know I’ve said it before, but I can not stress it enough. Micro-evolution
happens on a small scale within a single population. Macro happens on a scale
that can sometimes surpass the boundaries of one species. If I were you guys,
I would start thinking of some examples of micro and macro-evolution.
Macro-
evolution=Speciation
 Speciation
 The formation of a new
species
 New biological species come from
a common ancestor
Content About Fifth Slide:

 Me: Like we said before, micro-evolutions that build up over time can lead to
macro-evolutions, or speciation.
 Me: Now, a species is a group of individuals that can breed together and still
produce fertile offspring.
 Me: Sometimes organisms in the same species look a like, and sometimes they
don’t. But, an organism looking a like does NOT always mean they’re part of
the same species.
 Me: Dogs are an example of a species. There’s hundreds of different types of
dogs, but if two of them bred they’d produce fertile offspring. Same goes for
us humans. We all look different but we are the only existing human species.
Different Interpretations of Speciation

Gradualist Model Punctuated Equilibrium

Content About Sixth Slide

 Me: There are two theories on how fast speciation occurs. The first is the
gradualist model. You can probably tell from the name that is means gradual,
or slow. This theory is small changes over a long time. It is said that this type
of evolution is generally caused by a stable environment.
 Me: On the other hand, punctuated equilibrium is evolution that occurs in
spurts of rapid change. It’s often large changes and is caused by a dynamic
environment.
 Nitzia: Does that mean that the punctuated one has times where there is no
change at all?
 Me: That’s correct. Think of it as a punctuation mark. Gradualist is just one
run on sentence, whereas punctuated equilibrium has exclamation points.
  1. Subdivision of the population

 2. Evolution by Trait Selection (Natural or

Artificial)

The  3. Reproductive Isolation

Speciation
Process  = Two new species with the original population
becoming the common ancestor
Content About Seventh Slide:

 Me: So how do we get speciation then? It’s a three step process that starts
with a subdivision of the population. This means that someway, somehow
members of the same population now have a barrier between one another.
 Me: The next step is evolution over time by trait selection. Keep in mind that
this will be happening to both populations, the individuals that got separated
and the individuals that remained. They will just be evolving in different
ways.
 Me: Lastly, there must be reproductive isolation in order to keep that
evolution we were talking about from becoming one and the same.
 Me: After all these steps, if the population that left returns to the same
population, they can no longer produce fertile offspring because they are just
too different.
Different Types of
Subdivisions
 Allopatric

 Sympatric
 Behavioral Isolation
 Temporal Isolation
 Mechanical Isolation
 Ecological Isolation
 Gamete Isolation

 Hybrid infertility
Content About Eighth Slide:

 Me: As you can read on the board, there are different types of subdivisions
that lead to speciation. They are allopatric, sympatric, and hybrid in-
viability.
 Me: Any type of these isolations must occur before speciation can start to
occur. The isolation allows for the gene pools to be completely cut off from
one another, resulting in different changes over time.
 Me: Lets break it down a little starting with allopatric speciation. This is when
a geographical separation leads to the initial subdivision of the population. It
is a physical separation that can be caused by roads, rivers, earthquakes, you
name it.
 Me: Any questions? No? Cool. Sympatric speciation is a little harder to
understand, just because there is so many different types. Essentially, it is
the isolation of populations even though the organisms still have physical
contact with each other. Our first type on the board is behavioral isolation.
 Me: Behavioral isolation means that even if two different species breed at the
same time of the year, they will not mate if they are not attracted to one
another.
Content About Eighth Slide Cont.:

 Me: The next is temporal isolation. Temporal means time, so can anyone
guess what this type of isolation means?
 Class: Is silent
 Me: That’s okay. All it means is that even if they come in contact, they won’t
mate if they breed at different times. Take for example the cicada. Different
species of cicada mate at very specific times. So even though they might all
be chilling together, their biological mating clocks will never a line.
 Me: Mechanical isolation is different than the first two in that the individuals
can be attracted to one another. However, they’re not physically compatible,
so there is no way for them to actually mate.
 Me: Ecological isolation is for the case where they can’t mate if they don’t
come in contact with each other.
 Amado: Miss, they’re all in the same area though so why can’t they come in
contact?
 Me: It’s all about the individuals niche within their habitat. Some frogs need a
lot of water and some are fine with residual moistness. The two frogs will
probably never meet though because they don’t need to. It doesn’t make
sense for them to.
Content About Eighth Slide Cont.:

 Lastly, we have gamete isolation. This is the case where both of the
individuals are attracted to each other and they can physically have sex, but
the embryo will not form unless the sperm and egg fuse properly.
 Me: Before we start our online activity, I would like to clarify on the infertile
hybrids. Things like mules and ligers are a product of ancestral heritage
combined with speciation. These crossovers are infertile. There is no way to
breed these crosses and produce an offspring. I doubt any of you have seen a
liger, so every mule you’ve seen has been the offspring of a horse and a
donkey. Two mules will never mate to make another mule.

 Me: Now that we’ve finished the lesson, I want you guys to pull out your
ipads. We’ll have about 15 minutes to mess around on a speciation simulator.
When everyone is ready just start talking so I know.
 Class: A couple kids start talking and after a few minutes the class is filled
with conversation
 Me: Cool, sounds like everyone is ready. I wrote the link up on the board, but
you can find it by searching in speciation simulator too. I think it’s one of the
first ones that comes up.
 http://speciationsimulator.com/sim_2.html
Content About Online Program:

 Me: Once you’re there scroll down to where you see the speciation simulator
2.0 and click on it. Once you’re there, you’ll find organism, world, and
genetic settings. Be as creative as you want with everything and collaborate
with one another.
 Me: At the end of the class we’ll have a three question ticket out the door.

 Skip to end of class

 Me: Thanks for paying attention and following a long so well today guys. I
hope it wasn’t super boring. Remember if you need help with the homework
or have questions I’m always here for like an hour after school. Next class
we’ll start learning about evolutions and behaviors. Stay safe you guys and I’ll
see you on Wednesday.
Special Needs Accommodations: