Science
Ecosystems & Habitats
Conceptual
12–14 yrs
Extinction & Rapid Change
物种灭绝与快速变化
Description
Explain how environmental change can outpace a species' ability to adapt through natural selection, leading to extinction, using historical and contemporary examples
Mastery Evidence
- Explains why extinction occurs when environmental change is faster than the rate of adaptation
- Gives a historical example (e.g. woolly mammoth, dodo) and a contemporary example of threatened extinction
- Distinguishes between background extinction rates and mass extinctions
- Explains how human activity (habitat loss, hunting, climate change) is driving current species loss
Assessment Prompt
If your child was asked why woolly mammoths no longer exist while other large mammals survived, could they explain what conditions led to the mammoth's extinction — and connect it to what's happening with endangered species today?
