Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
A beetle collector is puzzled. "I found beetles of one species in two places," she writes. "In the dark woods, almost all were dark brown. On the pale sandy path, almost all were pale. Beetles cannot change their colour. So how did each place end up with mostly one colour?" Your team's job: play hungry birds, collect the evidence, and explain why some beetles of the same kind survive better than others.
Teams of three, with three jobs that rotate: Bird (hunts the beetles), Timer (counts 10 seconds) and Recorder (tallies each beetle found as dark or pale).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
9 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Beetle hunt strips
- Worksheet: Trait cards
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My predictions
- Beetle hunt results
- The next generation
- Trait cards
- My explanation
- Beetle hunt strips
- Trait cards
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 4 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Describes variation
- Links trait to survival
- Uses data fairly
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “Why do some animals in a family survive better?” take?
45–60 min. Group size: teams of 3.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes: print the two beetle hunt strips (one of each per team; colour or black and white both work) and the trait cards (one set per team, cut apart along the lines), and copy the student sheet. Keep the strips face down until the hunt starts.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): 3-LS4-2. It also matches England National Curriculum, Year 6 and Cambridge Primary Science, Stages 3 to 5 (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My predictions”, “Beetle hunt results”, “The next generation”, “Trait cards”, “My explanation”, “Beetle hunt strips”, “Trait cards”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 4 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.