Evolutionary Medicine

Appendix of Implementing District Standards:

Following Standards come from the Next Generation Science Standards:

• HS-LS2-7: Design, Evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity “This standard is used to understand how humans have an impact and how our actions directly affect the evolution of these microorganisms. Students will have to understand the problem with overusing antibiotics and how climate change can also affect the potency of bacterial diseases” ¹¹
• HS-LS3-1: Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring. “Normally, this standard does focus on humans and how traits are passed. However, bacteria are able to reproduce asexually. So, if rapidly reproducing bacteria are immune to antibiotics, they can reach a very large population size that causes serious damage to the human body” ⁴
• HS-LS3-2: Make and defend a claim based on evidence that inheritance genetic variations may result from (1) new genetic combinations through meiosis, (2) viable errors occurring during replication, and/or (3) mutations caused by environmental factors. “This standard can demonstrate how if an organism is a variant that can better survive an environmental effect (such as bacteria genotypes that survive an antibiotic treatment or insect genotypes that survive a chemical pesticide), then the variants and their beneficial traits will increase through future generations.”
• HS-LS3-3: Apply concepts of statistics and probability to explain the variation and distribution of expressed traits in a population. “We will practice reading data focused on the effectiveness of antibiotics and the resistance of bacteria.”
• HS-LS4-1: Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution and supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence. “This standard reflects the student’s understanding of phylogeny.”
• HS-LS4-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increases in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment. “This standard reflects on the student’s understanding of how natural selection can affect the population increase of bacterial diseases that are antibiotic resistant. Since we are examining how bacteria evolve to develop traits that favor survival against antibiotics, particularly in the context of human health, it’s crucial to understand the implications for treatment and prevention. They should also be able to realize that humans need to come up with a solution to this problem.”
• HS-LS4-3: Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait “This standard reflects on student’s interpretation of graphical representations of growth rate. Additionally, the inferring and predicting of what could potentially happen with the bacteria are still in conditions of survivability”
• HS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations “This is useful when explaining how bacteria can survive after an antibiotic treatment and continue to attack the human body.”
• HS-LS4-5: Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species “This is the prediction portion of standard HS-LS4-3”
• HS-LS4-6: Create and revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity “This is the prediction portion of standard HS-LS4-3”