Year 6 - Science
The survival of the fittest
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 explain the meaning of 'survival of the fittest' and give examples in animals or plants.
Key Notes
- Charles Darwin suggested that all the kinds of living things that exist today developed from earlier types.
- Some animals and plants are more likely to survive than others.
- Living things that survive can reproduce to pass on characteristics to their offspring.
- The most useful and strongest adaptations are passed on to enable the next generation of plants or animals to survive.
- Survival of the fittest means organisms that are better adapted to their habitat are most likely to survive & reproduce.
Vocabulary To Learn
- Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin was an English scientist who studied nature.
- adaptation: An adaptation is a feature of a plant or animal that helps them to survive in their habitat.
- offspring: Living things create offspring when they reproduce.
- survive: To survive means to continue to stay alive.
- reproduce: When living things reproduce they create their offspring.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may think that the 'fittest', as in 'survival of the fittest', means the most physically fit or healthy, rather than the most suited to the environment and conditions.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
Charles Darwin suggested that all the kinds of living things that exist today developed from earlier types. Some animals and plants are more likely to survive than others.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'Charles Darwin'
Charles Darwin was an English scientist who studied nature. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may think that the 'fittest', as in 'survival of the fittest', means the most physically fit or healthy, rather than the most suited to the environment and conditions. Correction: Using the examples in the slide deck, clearly explain that when we refer to the 'fittest' living things surviving, we mean those that are best suited to the conditions they are living in.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Animal adaptations Study Guide
- Charles Darwin and finches Study Guide
- Evolution: evidence 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
- 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.