HS-LS4-4 | Natural Selection and Adaptation · NYS standard · Regents questions

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Revision as of 02:38, 16 October 2026 by Conrad (talk | contribs) (PLDs: add example released question per level (editor judgment))
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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.

Regents Exam Questions

Released New York State Regents exam questions that assess HS-LS4-4 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 18
Frog Development Question 28
June 2026 Biology Regents Green and Black Frogs Question 12
Green and Black Frogs Question 14
Australian Adaptations Question 45
January 2026 Biology Regents Baboon Evolution Question 36
August 2025 Biology Regents 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 Biology Regents Organisms of the Tibetan Plateau Question 17
Organisms of the Tibetan Plateau Question 20
Biology sample clusters (Spring 2024) Dinosaurs-Evolution Question 4
Coral Reefs Question 5

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"

Performance Level Descriptions

Every Regents exam question on HS-LS4-4 is written to match one of the performance level descriptions (PLDs) below.

Level 1: Identify the evidence that an environmental factor can cause a change in a population (gene frequency). June 2026 Question 12
Level 2: Identify an evidence-based explanation that an environmental factor could affect a population (due to a change in gene frequency). January 2026 Question 36
Level 3: Construct and/or identify an explanation based on evidence that natural selection leads to adaptation of populations. August 2025 Question 30
Level 4: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations. June 2025 Question 17
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.
Notice: PLD levels!

Resources

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

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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
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