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SB6: Theory of Evolution

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What lines of evidence support the claim that all living organisms are related by common descent?

Construct an argument using valid and reliable sources to support the claim that evidence from comparative morphology (analogous vs. homologous structures), embryology, biochemistry, and genetics supports common descent (GSE SB6.c).
A Georgia Milestones Biology EOC answer on the evidence for evolution: the fossil record, homologous, analogous, and vestigial structures, embryological similarities, and molecular evidence from DNA and proteins, and what each line shows about common descent.
13 min answer →

Besides natural selection, what processes change the allele frequencies of a population?

Develop and use mathematical models to support explanations of how undirected genetic changes, including genetic drift and gene flow, alongside natural selection, lead to changes in populations of organisms (GSE SB6.d).
A Georgia Milestones Biology EOC answer on the mechanisms that change allele frequencies: mutation as the source of new alleles, genetic drift (including bottleneck and founder effects), gene flow, and natural selection, plus the Hardy-Weinberg idea of a non-evolving population for comparison.
13 min answer →

How does natural selection act on heritable variation to change a population over time?

Use mathematical and conceptual models to explain how natural selection acts on heritable variation to change the traits of a population over generations (GSE SB6.d).
A Georgia Milestones Biology EOC answer on natural selection: the four conditions (variation, overproduction, differential survival and reproduction, inheritance), what fitness really means, how selection produces adaptation, and the key idea that populations evolve while individuals do not.
13 min answer →

How do new species form, and how does natural selection cause antibiotic and pesticide resistance?

Analyze and interpret data to explain patterns in biodiversity that result from speciation, and develop a model to explain how natural selection causes biological resistance such as pesticide and antibiotic resistance (GSE SB6.b, SB6.e).
A Georgia Milestones Biology EOC answer on speciation and resistance: how reproductive isolation (often a geographic barrier) splits one species into two, how speciation builds biodiversity, and how natural selection produces antibiotic and pesticide resistance, a fast, real-world example of evolution.
13 min answer →

How did discoveries in Earth's history, the emergence of new species, and genetics shape our modern understanding of evolution?

Construct an explanation of how new understandings of Earth's history, the emergence of new species from pre-existing species, and our understanding of genetics have influenced our understanding of biology (GSE SB6.a).
A Georgia Milestones Biology EOC answer on how evolutionary theory developed: Darwin's idea of descent with modification by natural selection, why Lamarck's inheritance of acquired characteristics was wrong, and how a deep-time view of Earth and the later science of genetics turned the theory into the foundation of modern biology.
13 min answer →