HS-LS4-3

← HS-LS4-2

HS-LS4-4 →

Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on analyzing shifts in numerical distribution of traits and using these shifts as evidence to support explanations.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to basic statistical and graphical analysis. Assessment does not include allele frequency calculations.

Regents Exam Questions

Released New York State Regents exam questions that assess HS-LS4-3 are listed here by exam and question cluster. Each link opens the question with its answer key.

Exam	Cluster	Question
August 2026 Biology Regents	Colorful Guppies	Question 19
	Colorful Guppies	Question 21
January 2026 Biology Regents	A Hard Pest to Manage	Question 19
August 2025 Biology Regents	Strategies for Survival in Different Animal Species	Question 8
June 2025 Biology Regents	Keystone Species: Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs	Question 40

Vocabulary

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

From this standard

• adaptation
• advantageous heritable trait
• allele
• correlation (versus cause)
• differential survival and reproduction
• environmental factor
• frequency
• generation
• genetic information
• heritable trait
• natural selection
• population
• population shift
• probability
• proportion
• statistics
• survival
• trait
• trend
• variation

From released exam questions

• breeding – Jan 2026
• claim – June 2025
• Colorado – June 2025
• coloration – Aug 2026
• disease – June 2025
• fluctuation – June 2025
• infection – June 2025
• invasive species – Jan 2026
• investigation – Aug 2026
• larva – Jan 2026
• mammal – June 2025
• pest – Jan 2026
• pesticide – Jan 2026
• plague (Sylvatic Plague) – June 2025
• predation – Aug 2026
• predator – Aug 2026
• resistance (to a pesticide or treatment) – Jan 2026
• survivorship curve – Aug 2025

Implied by this standard

• fitness – implied by "anatomically, behaviorally, and physiologically well suited to survive and reproduce in a specific environment"

Performance Level Descriptions

Every Regents exam question on HS-LS4-3 is written to match one of the performance level descriptions (PLDs) below.

Level 1: Use a given mathematical representation, from those provided, to identify a pattern in a trait in a population over time. Aug 2026 · Q21

Level 2: Use a given mathematical representation to describe a pattern and/or describe a trend in a trait in a population over time. Aug 2026 · Q19

Level 3: Apply mathematical concepts to support an explanation and/or identify a pattern to describe a trend in a trait in a population over time (based on environmental factors). Jan 2026 · Q19 Aug 2025 · Q8

Level 4: Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait. June 2025 · Q40

Level 5: Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations and predict patterns that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.

Notice: PLD levels!

Resources

Examples and discussion of resources for the learning, teaching, and assessment of HS-LS4-3.

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

NGSS Dimensions

Performance expectation HS-LS4-3 was developed using the following elements from the NRC document A Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Science and Engineering Practices

• Analyzing and Interpreting Data
  • Apply concepts of statistics and probability (including determining function fits to data, slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient for linear fits) to scientific and engineering questions and problems, using digital tools when feasible.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• LS4.B: Natural Selection
  • Natural selection occurs only if there is both (1) variation in the genetic information between organisms in a population and (2) variation in the expression of that genetic information – that is, trait variation – that leads to differences in performance among individuals.
  • The traits that positively affect survival are more likely to be reproduced and thus are more common in the population.
• 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.
  • Adaptation also means that the distribution of traits in a population can change when conditions change.

Crosscutting Concepts

• Patterns
  • Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.

Page contributors: Conrad Richman, Caroline Leonard

Biology | HS. Natural Selection and Evolution