7 mistakes learners make with evolution and natural selection, each one named and explained.
Variation already exists; the environment decides which variants leave more offspring.
Newton or Curie is named as the originator of a biological theory.
Famous scientists are learned as a list of names before they are learned as a list of ideas.
Question. Who proposed natural selection
A common answer. Isaac Newton
The answer. Charles Darwin
Why. Newton worked on forces and light, and lived two centuries earlier.
Attach each name to one idea and one subject. The subject alone rules most of them out.
You explain natural selection as animals adapting themselves, or needing a feature and growing it.
It is the intuitive story, and it is the one most nature documentaries imply.
Question. How giraffes came to have long necks
A common answer. they stretched their necks and passed the longer neck on
The answer. the ones already born with longer necks fed better and left more offspring
Why. Stretching your own neck does not change the DNA in your gametes.
Nothing an animal does to itself gets inherited. The variation has to be there first.
Fossils are said to be useful because they tell us about today's weather or what animals eat now.
The statement offered is not false in itself, so it does not trigger any alarm.
Question. Why fossils are useful evidence for evolution
A common answer. they tell us what animals eat now
The answer. they show how organisms have changed over time
Why. Evolution is about change across time, so the evidence has to be about time.
Check the evidence answers the question asked, not just that it is true.
Natural selection is explained as the strongest or biggest animal always winning.
Survival of the fittest is a famous phrase and fit means strong in every other context.
Question. What fittest means in natural selection
A common answer. the strongest animal
The answer. the one best suited to that environment
Why. In a cold environment the fittest may be the smallest, because it loses less heat.
Fittest means best fitting the environment, the way a key fits a lock.
Gregor Mendel is given as the person who proposed evolution by natural selection.
Mendel is the other famous name in this topic, and both worked on inheritance.
Question. Who proposed evolution by natural selection
A common answer. Gregor Mendel
The answer. Charles Darwin
Why. Mendel worked out how inheritance works, using pea plants.
Two different questions. Darwin asked why species change; Mendel asked how traits pass on.
Fossils are described as proving that animals have always stayed the same.
Living things look fixed over a human lifetime, because the change is far slower than that.
Question. Why fossils are evidence for evolution
A common answer. they prove animals never change
The answer. they show how organisms have changed over time
Why. Fossils from different rock layers show different forms of the same lineage.
Evolution is invisible at human timescales. That is why the evidence is in the rocks.
The differences between individuals of one species are called adaptation.
Both words describe how living things suit their surroundings, and both appear in the same topic.
Question. Differences between individuals of the same species
A common answer. adaptation
The answer. variation
Why. An adaptation is a feature that suits an environment; variation is simply that individuals differ.
Variation comes first and exists anyway. Adaptation is what natural selection does with it.
WAJD spots these patterns in your child's answers and names the one behind their wrong answers, instead of just marking them wrong.