Science Assessment ~ Topics ~ Evolution and Natural Selection

Topic: Evolution and Natural Selection

Below is a list of key ideas related to Evolution and Natural Selection. Select a key idea to see the sub-ideas, assessment items, results from our field testing, student misconceptions, and NGSS statements for that idea.

Additional content related to this topic is available in the Evolution.

There are similarities and differences between organisms living today, and between organisms living today and those that lived in the past, both within the same species and between species.

All living things contain genes made of DNA, and those genes code for proteins that are responsible for an organism's traits.

Genetic variation results from mutations and allele shuffling during reproduction, which leads to variation in proteins and, finally, to variation in traits.

Environmental conditions have changed in the past and continue to change today.

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.

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.