HS-LS4-4 | Natural Selection and Adaptation

From NY Science Standards Wiki
← HS-LS4-3
HS-LS4-5 →

Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on using data to provide evidence for how specific biotic and abiotic differences in ecosystems (such as ranges of seasonal temperature, long-term climate change, acidity, light, geographic barriers, or evolution of other organisms) contribute to a change in gene frequency over time, leading to adaptation of populations.

Assessment

What assessment of HS-LS4-4 might look like on a NY state exam.

Exam Cluster Question
August 2026 Colorful Guppies Question 18
Frog Development Question 28
June 2026 Green and Black Frogs Question 12
Green and Black Frogs Question 14
Australian Adaptations Question 45
January 2026 Baboon Evolution Question 36
August 2025 Strategies for Survival in Different Animal Species Question 10
Ivory and Elephants Question 17
How Do Kangaroo Rats Survive in the Desert? Question 30
Driving the Florida Panther to Extinction Question 42
June 2025 Organisms of the Tibetan Plateau Question 17
Organisms of the Tibetan Plateau Question 20
Sample clusters (Spring 2024) Dinosaurs-Evolution Question 4
Coral Reefs Question 5

Performance Level Descriptions

PLDs communicate the knowledge and skills expected of students to demonstrate proficiency in each Learning Standard. NYS assessments classify student performance into one of five levels.

☐
Level 1: Identify the evidence that an environmental factor can cause a change in a population (gene frequency).
☐
Level 2: Identify an evidence-based explanation that an environmental factor could affect a population (due to a change in gene frequency).
☐
Level 3: Construct and/or identify an explanation based on evidence that natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.
☐
Level 4: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.
☐
Level 5: Construct an explanation based on evidence obtained from a variety of reliable sources that identifies cause and effect relationships for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations and predicts changes relating to gene or trait frequencies.

Vocabulary

Terms from the Biology Glossary that come from this standard or from the released exam questions that assess it.

From this standard
  • acidity
  • adaptation
  • advantageous heritable trait
  • claim
  • climate change
  • correlation (versus cause)
  • differential survival and reproduction
  • ecosystem
  • empirical evidence
  • environmental factor
  • evolution
  • gene
  • gene frequency
  • generation
  • geographic barrier
  • investigation
  • natural selection
  • population
  • proportion
  • selection
  • trait
  • trait frequency
From released exam questions
Implied by this standard
  • selection pressure (environmental pressure) – implied by "biotic and abiotic differences in ecosystems"

Resources

Examples and discussion of resources for the learning, teaching, and assessment of HS-LS4-4.

Pixel beaver This section could be expanded upon. You can help out by adding to this section.


NGSS Dimensions

Performance expectation HS-LS4-4 was developed using the following elements from the NRC document A Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Science and Engineering Practices
  • Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
    • Construct an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • LS4.C: Adaptation
    • Natural selection leads to adaptation that is, to a population dominated by organisms that are anatomically, behaviorally, and physiologically well suited to survive and reproduce in a specific environment. That is, the differential survival and reproduction of organisms in a population that have an advantageous heritable trait leads to an increase in the proportion of individuals in future generations that have the trait and to a decrease in the proportion of individuals that do not.
Crosscutting Concepts
  • Cause and Effect
    • Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.
Page contributors: Conrad Richman, Caroline Leonard
Biology | HS. Natural Selection and Evolution
Retrieved from "https://nyssls.info/index.php?title=HS-LS4-4&oldid=5736"

About Us • Privacy Policy • Contact Us • Terms of Use