Teacher instructions

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune in: Definitions

20 minutes

Find out: Classifying scenarios

30 minutes

Take action: Create an animation

Tune in: Definitions

Step 1

Read the Speciation factsheet.

Step 2

Discuss:

What is speciation?
What is variation and how does it relate to speciation?
What is isolation and how does it relate to speciation?
What is natural selection?

Step 3

Give students several minutes to create their own definitions for speciation, variation and isolation

Find out: Classifying scenarios

Step 1

Refer students to the example of the squirrels in the Grand Canyon presented on the Speciation factsheet.

Discuss:

In this example, how did isolation occur? Was it - for example - geographical or climatic?
How do you think the species in this example adapted to their environment? What might have been the selective agents affecting this species?
Why do you think variation is necessary before natural selection can occur?

Explain to students that they will now be exploring speciation in more detail.

Step 2

Break students into pairs and ask them to access the Speciation Activity on the Student Worksheet. In this activity, students are asked to look at a landscape with a range of different habitats. Students will be asked to work in their pairs to think about where the following two monkeys would live based on their physical characteristics:

Both monkeys are omnivorous, and apart from their arms, are the same colour and build.Students are asked to work together to answer the following questions:

Where do you think the swinging monkey would live and why?
Where do you think the low-arm monkey would live and why?
Imagine a predator with good eyesight arrives in the area. which monkey will be eaten and why?
How might an increase in temperature affect where the monkeys live?

Step 3

Once complete, invite students to share their answers in a class discussion. In addition, refer students to the Speciation factsheet and invite them to think about what type of speciation this example might represent and why.

Take action: Create an animation

Step 1

Working in groups or as a class, ask students to create a claymation video showing the steps by which two different species of lizard could develop from one species after the formation of the desert of the Nullarbor Plain.

The example of this lizard can be hypothetical: the aim of the exercise is for students to demonstrate they understand the basic steps of speciation.

In their animations, students should explain:

How variation might have occurred;
What factors caused isolation (for example, geographical or climatic);
How selection occurred and what the selective agents were;
How natural selection prevents the two different species from breeding; and
What ecological niche the two species now occupy (what they eat, where they nest and breed).

Students can use a desktop program to create their animation, or use an online program, such as Wideo or Go Animate.

Reflection

Invite some students to share their animation with the class.

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Invite students to research and describe the four different types of speciation:

Allopatric speciation
Peripatric speciation
Parapatric speciation
Sympatric speciation

Evolution - Speciation

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