Year 6 - Science
Evolution: evidence
Evolution and inheritance
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores how living things have changed over time, using fossils as evidence of past life. It covers how offspring vary from parents and how adaptation leads to evolution. Emphasis is on planning scientific enquiries, recording data, and evaluating scientific evidence.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to research a living thing that has evolved over time.
Key Notes
- Evolution is the process by which living things can gradually change over time.
- The huge variety of living things in the world today is the result of evolution over time.
- The theory of evolution has been proven through evidence from fossils as well as living animals and plants.
- The evolution of living things can be researched using secondary sources of information.
Vocabulary To Learn
- theory: A theory is a carefully thought-out explanation for something about our world that is based on learning from scientific enquiry.
- adaptation: An adaptation is a feature of a plant or animal that helps them to survive in their habitat.
- evolution: Evolution is the process by which living things change over time.
- ancestor: Your ancestor lived in the past and is directly related to you.
- secondary sources: Secondary sources are texts, images or objects created using information gathered by others.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may think evolution is just one possible suggestion or an unproved idea about how living things change over time, due to the common use of the word 'theory' for an initial idea or suggestion.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
Evolution is the process by which living things can gradually change over time. The huge variety of living things in the world today is the result of evolution over time.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'theory'
A theory is a carefully thought-out explanation for something about our world that is based on learning from scientific enquiry. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may think evolution is just one possible suggestion or an unproved idea about how living things change over time, due to the common use of the word 'theory' for an initial idea or suggestion. Correction: Use the examples in the lesson to explain there is enough evidence supporting the theory of evolution for us to be certain that it is scientific fact, rather than an idea we are still unsure about.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Animal adaptations Study Guide
- Charles Darwin and finches Study Guide
- Evolution: presentation Study Guide
- Family trees (non-statutory) Study Guide
- How living things have changed over time Study Guide
- Human skulls: using evidence from the past (non-statutory) Study Guide
- Inherited characteristics Study Guide
- More about plant adaptations Study Guide
- Offspring: similar but not identical Study Guide
- Plant adaptations Study Guide
- The survival of the fittest Study Guide
- What fossils can tell us about the past Study Guide
- Where fossils are found (non-statutory) Study Guide
Browse all guides in the Year 6 Science guide library.