Science Assessment ~ Topics ~ Evolution and Natural Selection ~ Item EN034002 ~ Student Performance

A population is a group of individuals of the same species. Can the percent of individuals with certain traits in a population change because the environment changes?

Yes, when the environment changes, individuals in a population can change their inherited traits to better fit the environment, and this changes the percent of individuals with certain traits in that population.
Yes, when the environment changes, individuals with certain inherited traits survive and reproduce and other individuals with different inherited traits die, and this changes the percent of individuals with certain traits in a population.
No, the percent of individuals with certain inherited traits in a population changes randomly from one generation to the next, never as a result of changes to the environment.
No, the percent of individuals with certain inherited traits in a population cannot change because a population is all one species and so will always have the same inherited traits.

Distribution of responses
Answer Choice		Overall	Grades		Gender		Primary Language
		n = 4661	6–8 n = 2889	9–12 n = 1772	Male n = 2203	Female n = 2367	English n = 4160	Other n = 383
A.	Yes, when the environment changes, individuals in a population can change their inherited traits to better fit the environment, and this changes the percent of individuals with certain traits in that population.	32%	35%	28%	31%	33%	32%	32%
B.	Yes, when the environment changes, individuals with certain inherited traits survive and reproduce and other individuals with different inherited traits die, and this changes the percent of individuals with certain traits in a population.	46%	41%	54%	46%	46%	46%	44%
C.	No, the percent of individuals with certain inherited traits in a population changes randomly from one generation to the next, never as a result of changes to the environment.	14%	15%	12%	15%	13%	14%	15%
D.	No, the percent of individuals with certain inherited traits in a population cannot change because a population is all one species and so will always have the same inherited traits.	9%	10%	7%	9%	9%	9%	9%

Science Assessment

Item EN034002: Some organisms survive and others die as the environment changes; this changes the percent of organisms with certain traits in that population.