Natural selection

Science•Key Stage 3•Adaptations, competition, natural selection and evolution

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I can explain how variation and competition lead to the natural selection of individuals with the most helpful characteristics.

Key learning points

Variation within a population of a species means some individuals are better adapted to compete and survive.
The fittest (better adapted) individuals are more likely to survive to reproduce.
These individuals are more likely to pass on heritable, advantageous features to their offspring.
This is natural selection, and causes the advantageous features to become more common in each generation of offspring.
Changes in environmental conditions, including changes caused by humans, can affect natural selection.

variation: Variation is the term for differences between individuals of the same species.
competition: Living organisms struggle for access to limited resources. This struggle is known as competition.
fittest: Organisms that are the best adapted to their environment are said to be the fittest.
reproduction: Reproduction is the process of making offspring.
natural selection: Organisms that are better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive, reproduce and pass on their genes to their offspring.

Students often think that advantageous traits are due to an organism choosing to change itself in order to be successful.
This lesson uses CfUs in order to explore and deconstruct this misconception.

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