Description
Teaching evolution has never been easier. This 20-day evolution unit gives you daily plans, warm-ups, labs, lessons, stations, activities, reading comprehensions, graphic organizers, presentations, and review games already sequenced and ready to go.
Your students will explore how populations change over time through engaging labs, interactive activities, and hands-on simulations that bring evolution to life, while you save hours of prep time with ready-to-use resources.
Each resource is standards-aligned and organized by day, so you’ll always know exactly what to teach and when. Daily editable lesson plans are included, making it easy to walk in and teach with confidence. This evolution unit is part of my full-year biology curriculum bundle.
Topics Covered in This Evolution Unit:
Foundations of Evolution
- What evolution is and why it occurs in populations, not individuals
- Early ideas about evolution (Hutton, Lyell, Lamarck, Malthus)
- Charles Darwin, the HMS Beagle, and On the Origin of Species
Natural Selection
- Conditions of natural selection
- Survival of the fittest and biological fitness
- Adaptations and how traits become more common over time
- Peppered moths and industrial melanism
- Antibiotic resistance as a real-world example of natural selection
- Artificial selection
Evidence of Evolution
- Fossils and transitional fossils
- Biogeography
- Comparative anatomy:
- Homologous, analogous, and vestigial structures
- Comparative embryology
- Molecular biology and DNA evidence
- Direct observation of evolution
Population Genetics
- Alleles, gene pools, and genetic variation
- Evolution as a change in allele frequency
- Gene flow and migration
- Mutations and their role in evolution
- Genetic drift: bottleneck and founder effect
Patterns of Evolution
- Divergent evolution
- Convergent evolution
- Adaptive radiation
- Coevolution
Speciation
- What defines a species
- Types of isolation
- Prezygotic and postzygotic barriers
- Allopatric and sympatric speciation
Click here to get a closer preview of what is included in this unit.
This Evolution Unit Includes:
- Unit Plan and Pacing Guide: This evolution unit guide gives you a complete overview of the unit with standards, pacing, and structure. It’s perfect for quick reference and pairs seamlessly with the daily lesson plans. Teach with confidence knowing exactly what to cover each day – no guesswork, just a clear roadmap from start to finish. Take a look at the free sample evolution unit plan and pacing guide here.
- Daily Lesson Plans – 20 Days of Plans Done for You: Each day includes a comprehensive 2-page lesson plan with your overview, agenda, pacing, materials, and a ticket out the door (with answers). You’ll also find helpful teacher tips and ideas differentiating instruction for upper level and lower level students.
- Engaging Daily Warm-Ups: Every lesson starts with a short warm-up that is phenomenon-based or reviews the previous day’s lesson. Included in the speaker notes of the presentation are the answers, along with discussion prompts and teaching ideas to keep your students engaged, thinking critically, and making connections between concepts.
- Hands-On Labs and Activities: A hands-on peppered moth camouflage lab, a fun genetic drift lab and simulation, engaging evolution lab stations (includes bird beak adaptations), and the classic “Who Wants to Live a Million Years” game are all included to help students explore evolution through meaningful, real-world applications.
- Presentation and Notes: Ready-to-use, visually engaging editable slides and notes for the history, mechanisms, patterns, and evidence of evolution, Perfect for direct instruction or adapting to your own style.
- Meaningful and Engaging Activities: Graphic organizers, reading comprehensions, worksheets, webquests, video handouts, read and color pages, and more keep students engaged and learning in a variety of ways, making this evolution unit ideal for all learning styles.
- Unit Review Game and Study Guide: End your unit with a comprehensive study guide and a fun review game! Students review key evolution concepts in a fun evolution review game for a creative and interactive way to prepare for the test.
- Editable Pre-Test, Unit Exam, and Question Bank: Includes a pre-test, two versions of the final exam, and a 100-question bank organized by topic to make assessment simple and flexible.
- Built-In Remediation & Sub Plans: No-prep sub plans and remediation activities are built into each topic of this unit to make differentiation simple and to keep learning on track, even when you’re out.
This unit is part of my full-year biology curriculum bundle – on sale now!
Why You’ll Love This Unit
Everything you need to teach evolution is organized and ready to go. From detailed lesson plans to ready-made slides and labs, you can walk into class fully prepared and confident.
- All resources organized by day and topic
- Ready-to-use labs, slides, and activities
- Built-in warm-ups, reviews, and assessments
- Sub plans and remediation activities included
Save time, reduce stress, and keep students engaged from start to finish. Just open, teach, and watch them master evolution with confidence!
Why this bundle is a win for your sanity (and your wallet):
If you pieced these resources together one by one, you’d spend over $140. Grab the whole unit bundle, plus bonus daily lesson plans, a pacing guide, assessments, and more to save yourself hours of prep.
Standards-Aligned
Every resource is aligned and organized so you know exactly what to teach, when to teach it, and how it meets NGSS standards.
- HS-LS4-1
- HS-LS4-2
- HS-LS4-3
- HS-LS4-4
- HS-LS4-5
