Download Unit 3 KA1 Learning Outcomes

National 5 Biology
Learning Outcomes
Unit 3 Life on Earth
Key Area 1: Adaptations & Evolution
I can . . .
1. State that mutations are random changes to genetic material.
2. State that mutation can have no effect on an organism, be an advantage to an organism or
be a disadvantage to an organism.
3. Be able to give examples of mutations that are neutral, advantageous or disadvantageous.
4. State that mutations occur spontaneously and are the only source of new alleles.
5. Describe environmental factors that can increase the rate of mutation.
6. State that an adaptation is an inherited characteristic that makes an organism well suited
to survival in its environment.
7. State that variation can occur within a population caused by meiosis, sexual reproduction
and mutation.
8. Give examples of variation within a population.
9. State that variation leads to evolution over time in response to changing environmental
conditions.
10. Explain natural selection as survival of the fittest.
11. State that more offspring are produced than can survive.
12. State that the best adapted individuals are more likely to breed and so pass favoured
genes on to the next generation conferring a selective advantage.
13. Explain speciation as the formation of new species and evolution as the mechanism which
brings it about.
14. Describe how populations of the same species become isolated from each other by
ecological, reproductive and geographical factors.
15. State that this isolation over a period of time can lead to separate species.