Topic-+Evolution+and+Natural+Selection

Topic: Evolution and Natural Selection
Below is a list of key ideas related to Evolution and Natural Selection. For each key idea, you will find a list of sub-ideas, a list of items, results from our field testing, and a list of student misconceptions. After clicking on a tab, click on it again to close the tab.

There are similarities and differences between organisms living today and those that lived in the past.
//Students are expected to know that:// //Boundaries//:
 * [|Sub-Ideas]
 * [|Items & Student Performance]
 * [|Misconceptions]
 * 1) Fossils include the remains of, or impressions left by, organisms that lived in the past and that have been preserved in rock or gradually replaced by rock.
 * 2) Fossils can be used to study the anatomical features of extinct species, and to compare their features with those of existing species.
 * 3) If available, DNA can be analyzed to learn about species from the past.
 * 4) Scientists have found similarities and differences among existing species, among extinct species, and between existing and extinct species.
 * 5) Although many species have undergone little change for many millions of years, and a few appear to have changed very little since the early history of life, most species living today did not exist when life first began on earth.
 * 6) Extinctions have occurred throughout the history of life and continue to occur.
 * 1) Students are not expected to know the different kinds of fossils.
 * 2) Students are not expected to know the fossilization process.

Percent of students answering correctly (click on the item ID number to view the item and additional data)||~ Item ID Number ||~ Knowledge Being Assessed 6–8 ||~ Grades 9–12 ||~ Select This Item for My Item Bank ||
 * ~ Grades
 * [|EN053001] || [|There are both similarities and differences between extinct and existing species.] || 74% || 71% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3430"]] ||
 * [|EN051001] || [|Fossils can be used to study the anatomical features of extinct species and to compare the features of extinct species with those of existing species.] || 68% || 75% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3428"]] ||
 * [|EN015002] || [|Scientists can use both fossils and DNA to study organisms that lived in the past.] || 58% || 60% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3363"]] ||
 * [|EN052001] || [|A scientist studying the fossils of an extinct species of fish could discover what anatomical features the extinct species had, and he could discover similarities and differences between the features of the extinct fish and those of currently existing fish.] || 51% || 60% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3429"]] ||
 * [|EN014002] || [|Many species have become extinct throughout the history of life on earth.] || 48% || 58% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3362"]] ||
 * [|EN013002] || [|The term 'fossil' can refer to both a bone in which the original matter has been replaced by rock and an impression left by a bone in rock.] || 48% || 55% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3361"]] ||
 * [|EN054003] || [|There are both similarities and differences between a cow and a Tyrannosaurus rex.] || 43% || 55% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3433"]] ||
 * [|EN055001] || [|Most species living today did not exist at the time life began.] || 46% || 52% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3434"]] ||
 * [|EN055002] || [|Scientists think that most species living today did not exist at the time life began.] || 42% || 53% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3435"]] ||
 * [|EN054001] || [|There are both similarities and differences between cats and worms.] || 37% || 48% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3431"]] ||
 * [|EN054002] || [|There are both similarities and differences between maple trees and lizards.] || 33% || 40% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3432"]] ||

Frequency of selecting a misconception||~ Misconception ID Number 6–8 ||~ Grades 9–12 || Frequency of selecting a misconception was calculated by dividing the total number of times a misconception was chosen by the number of times it could have been chosen, averaged over the number of students answering the questions within this particular idea.
 * ~ Student Misconception ||~ Grades
 * [|ENM051] || [|Species that have no apparent, obvious, or superficial similarities have no similarities at all (see Shtulman, 2006).] || 39% || 32% ||
 * [|ENM049] || [|Up until recently, extinction was rare; humans have caused the majority of extinctions (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 26% || 21% ||
 * [|ENM048] || [|Except for periodic mass extinction events, extinction is very rare (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 15% || 15% ||
 * [|ENM020] || [|Only a few of the many species of organisms that lived in the past are now extinct. Most of the species of organisms that lived in the past are still alive today (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 11% || 7% ||
 * [|ENM019] || [|All species began at the same time and still exist today (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 9% || 8% ||

Environmental conditions have changed in the past and continue to change today.
//Students are expected to know:// //Boundaries://
 * [|Sub-Ideas]
 * [|Items & Student Performance]
 * [|Misconceptions]
 * 1) Environmental conditions on earth (such as temperature and amount of rainfall) fluctuate over time, and have changed throughout the history of the earth.
 * 2) Environmental changes can occur abruptly (such as changes caused by volcanic eruptions, asteroids striking the earth, or a new organism entering an ecosystem), or gradually (such as changes caused by the movement of continents, erosion, or sedimentation).
 * 3) Over long periods of time, small changes in environmental conditions can add up, resulting in large overall changes in environmental conditions. Examples of this include changes in temperature, precipitation, and concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. This can lead to significant changes in the environment such as a rise in sea level, a decrease in the size of glaciers, and expansion of deserts.
 * 1) In writing test items, changes in environmental conditions may include changes in the physical environment (climate, geography), or conditions in the living community (which species are present and how many of each species are present), but students will not be tested on whether they know that the term “environmental conditions” includes both living and non-living factors.

Percent of students answering correctly (click on the item ID number to view the item and additional data)||~ Item ID Number ||~ Knowledge Being Assessed 6–8 ||~ Grades 9–12 ||~ Select This Item for My Item Bank ||
 * ~ Grades
 * [|EN018002] || [|The environmental conditions on earth changed in the past, and they are changing now.] || 66% || 77% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3365"]] ||
 * [|EN019002] || [|Changes to the physical environment of earth can happen suddenly or gradually.] || 65% || 69% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3366"]] ||
 * [|EN017002] || [|Conditions have changed in signigicant ways everywhere on earth, with some of these changes happening suddenly and others more gradually.] || 62% || 69% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3364"]] ||
 * [|EN020002] || [|Many changes to the physical environment have happened from the time that earth was formed until the present day.] || 43% || 50% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3367"]] ||

Frequency of selecting a misconception||~ Misconception ID Number 6–8 ||~ Grades 9–12 || Frequency of selecting a misconception was calculated by dividing the total number of times a misconception was chosen by the number of times it could have been chosen, averaged over the number of students answering the questions within this particular idea.
 * ~ Student Misconception ||~ Grades
 * [|ENM027] || [|Except for a few major changes due to large volcanoes that have erupted or meteorites that have struck the earth, environmental conditions have stayed the same throughout the history of the earth (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 14% || 12% ||
 * [|ENM026] || [|Except for minor fluctuations from year to year, environmental conditions have stayed the same throughout the history of the earth (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 13% || 11% ||
 * [|ENM044] || [|Since the time life began, conditions have remained the same in the oceans but have changed on land (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 12% || 7% ||
 * [|ENM050] || [|Environmental conditions did not change in the past, but they are changing now (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 11% || 7% ||
 * [|ENM043] || [|Environmental conditions have changed in the past, but are no longer changing (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 8% || 6% ||
 * [|ENM025] || [|There have been no changes to the physical environment of the earth since life began (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 5% || 3% ||

When inherited traits are favorable to individual organisms, the proportion of individuals in a population that have those traits will tend to increase over successive generations.
//Students are expected to know that//: //Boundaries//:
 * [|Sub-Ideas]
 * [|Items & Student Performance]
 * [|Misconceptions]
 * 1) There is variation in the inherited traits of organisms of the same species, including traits that affect their ability to find food, avoid predators, and attract mates.
 * 2) Some inherited traits (e.g. bacterial resistance to antibiotics, skin pigmentation in some organisms) may give individuals of a species an advantage in surviving and reproducing in their environment compared to other individuals of the same species (e.g. increased ability to find food or nesting sites, avoid predators, attract mates, resist diseases). Conversely, the individuals that do not have advantageous trait(s) are more likely to be unable to survive and reproduce.
 * 3) An organism’s survival influences its reproductive success. Usually, the longer an organism lives (during its reproductive years), the more chances it has to reproduce; therefore traits that improve chances of survival (such as finding food or avoiding predators) also increase chances of success in reproduction.
 * 4) Changes in environmental conditions (such as the appearance of a new predator, a slight change in temperature, or changes due to the eruption of a volcano) can change which traits are more advantageous (or less detrimental) in the new environment.
 * 5) Because more of the individuals with favorable inherited traits survive and reproduce than those that do not have them, and because the favorable traits are passed on to the offspring, the proportion of individuals with the favorable inherited traits increases in each subsequent generation. This process is called **natural selection**.
 * 6) There is no guarantee that any members of a population will be able to survive and reproduce in a changed environment. Sometimes changes in environmental conditions may cause an entire population of organisms to die, or even an entire species to become extinct.
 * 7) The process of natural selection does not lead to changes in the characteristics of individual organisms. It only changes the characteristics of populations (i.e. the proportion of individuals in the population having certain inherited traits) over time.
 * 8) After natural selection has operated on many successive generations of a population, the descendants can be very different from their original ancestors.
 * 9) Even though organisms can be very different in both appearance and behavior from their ancestors of many generations ago, they retain some of the inherited traits of those early ancestors.
 * 1) Students are not expected to know the many ways speciation can occur in a population.
 * 2) Students are not expected to know the origin of variation among individuals in a population (i.e. how genetic mutations happen).

Percent of students answering correctly (click on the item ID number to view the item and additional data)||~ Item ID Number ||~ Knowledge Being Assessed 6–8 ||~ Grades 9–12 ||~ Select This Item for My Item Bank ||
 * ~ Grades
 * [|EN043002] || [|Over thousands of years, there will be changes to the environment that could lead to changes in the traits of species.] || 67% || 75% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3400"]] ||
 * [|EN033002] || [|If members of a species were moved to a new environment, many generations later their offspring would have both differences and similarities compared to the original population, because different traits are favorable in different environments.] || 60% || 68% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3391"]] ||
 * [|EN029002] || [|In a population of light and dark moths, if the number of dark trees for the moths to hide in suddenly increases, the number of dark moths will increase in each generation because more dark moths will survive and reproduce than light moths.] || 57% || 68% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3383"]] ||
 * [|EN041002] || [|Individual members of a species can vary in their ability to find food and to avoid predators.] || 55% || 66% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3399"]] ||
 * [|EN039002] || [|Individual members of a species can vary in their ability to find food and to reproduce.] || 54% || 58% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3411"]] ||
 * [|EN028002] || [|If only large seeds are available, only the birds with large enough beaks will get enough food to survive and reproduce, and they will pass the trait of large beaks to the next generation.] || 51% || 60% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3382"]] ||
 * [|EN034002] || [|Some organisms survive and others die as the environment changes; this changes the percent of organisms with certain traits in that population.] || 41% || 54% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3392"]] ||
 * [|EN045002] || [|Individuals of the same species may differ in their inherited traits, and these differences may affect their relative success in survival and reproduction.] || 37% || 46% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3402"]] ||
 * [|EN034003] || [|Some organisms survive and others die as the environment changes; this changes the proportion of organisms with certain traits in that population.] || 35% || 50% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3393"]] ||
 * [|EN038002] || [|Traits must be inherited from one generation to the next in order for natural selection to occur.] || 35% || 45% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3397"]] ||
 * [|EN021002] || [|When a change occurs in the environment, the individuals that have traits that are better suited for the changed environment would be more likely to survive and reproduce.] || 29% || 53% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3371"]] ||
 * [|EN023001] || [|When a new predator is introduced into a population of lizards, the individual lizards with the traits that best help them avoid the predator are more likely to survive and reproduce than the others.] || 32% || 46% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/2624"]] ||
 * [|EN022002] || [|If the type of seed available to a population of birds changes, the individual birds with the beak best equipped for eating the new type of seed are more likely to survive and reproduce than the others.] || 32% || 45% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3376"]] ||
 * [|EN026002] || [|A population can differ from its ancestors because an environmental change can affect which inherited traits are most helpful and, therefore, which individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce.] || 29% || 44% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3380"]] ||
 * [|EN038003] || [|Traits must be inherited from one generation to the next in order for natural selection to occur.] || 35% || 33% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3398"]] ||
 * [|EN030002] || [|Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics when a few individual resistant bacteria survive and reproduce, passing their resistance on to the next generation.] || 21% || 35% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3384"]] ||
 * [|EN032002] || [|Species can change over generations because individuals with traits that are helpful in the current environment are more likely to survive and pass those traits on to their offspring.] || 20% || 29% || [[image:http://assessment.aaas.org/img/star_16x16_grey.png link="http://assessment.aaas.org/users/itembank/add/3389"]] ||

Frequency of selecting a misconception||~ Misconception ID Number 6–8 ||~ Grades 9–12 || Frequency of selecting a misconception was calculated by dividing the total number of times a misconception was chosen by the number of times it could have been chosen, averaged over the number of students answering the questions within this particular idea.
 * ~ Student Misconception ||~ Grades
 * [|ENM031] || [|Individual organisms can deliberately develop new heritable traits because they need them for survival (Bishop & Anderson 1990; Passmore et al., 2002; Stern & Roseman, 2004).] || 34% || 28% ||
 * [|ENM046] || [|Sudden environmental change is required for evolution to occur (Nehm & Reilly, 2007).] || 32% || 30% ||
 * [|ENM037] || [|Changes in a population occur through a gradual change in all members of a population, not from the survival of a few individuals that preferentially reproduce (Brumby, 1979; Bishop & Anderson, 1990; Anderson et al., 2002; Stern & Roseman, 2004).] || 26% || 28% ||
 * [|ENM047] || [|Evolution happens when individual organisms acclimate or "get used to" new conditions gradually (Bishop & Anderson, 1990).] || 25% || 27% ||
 * [|ENM034] || [|Change occurs in the inherited characteristics of a population of organisms over time because of the use or disuse of a particular characteristic (Bishop & Anderson, 1990).] || 22% || 18% ||
 * [|ENM033] || [|Change to the characteristics of populations (i.e. the proportion of individuals in the population having certain traits) of organisms is always random, and is not influenced by the favorability of that change in a given environment (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 21% || 14% ||
 * [|ENM029] || [|Except for differences between males and females, and between young and old, all organisms of the same species look and act the same (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 17% || 11% ||
 * [|ENM028] || [|All individuals within a population of organisms are the same. Differences among them are trivial and unimportant. All members of a population are nearly identical (Greene, 1990; Passmore & Stewart 2004; Anderson et al. 2002; Shtulman, 2006).] || 17% || 11% ||
 * [|ENM030] || [|The internal chemistry, appearance, and behavior of a species do not change, even over long periods of time (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 13% || 10% ||
 * [|ENM052] || [|Changes to the environment cannot lead to changes in the traits of species living in that environment.] || 12% || 9% ||
 * [|ENM035] || [|Change occurs in the inherited characteristics of populations of organisms over time because organisms observe other more successful organisms and model their appearance or habits (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).] || 10% || 8% ||

==== Similarities and differences in inherited characteristics of organisms alive today or in the past can be used to infer the relatedness of any two species, changes in species over time, and lines of evolutionary descent. ====
 * [|Sub-Ideas]
 * [|Items & Student Performance]
 * [|Misconceptions]