Adaptations and Evolution

In this  activity, children observe and describe features of selected animals and plants and explain that these features may be evolutionary adaptations. They make observations of a living things and suggest reasons why the adaptations mean they are suited to living in a particular environment. Included in this resource is a short video which shows children engaged in an activity looking at different dinosaurs. Following this activity Professor Alice Roberts explains how we need to understand variation and natural selection to understand evolution, highlighting several examples of variation in different species of plants and animals. The video concludes with an animation explaining the process by which evolution occurs by looking at a distant ancestor of the horse. This [link=http://stem.org.uk/rxeoy]related resource[/link] on bird beak shapes provides a further practical activity.

This resource has been provided by Primary Evolution, produced by Reading University with support from the Wellcome Trust.