Study Cards
One card at a time — tap “Show me” to check yourself, then Next. Start at Foundation; when those feel easy, climb.
Helpful Hints
🔁 Natural selection in four steps — VIST
Variation exists → Inheritance passes it on → Selection: some variants survive and reproduce more → Time: over generations the helpful trait spreads.
Variation · Inheritance · Selection · Time = VIST⛏️ Reading the fossil record
In undisturbed rock layers, deeper = older. The record shows life appearing, changing, and going extinct in order — simple sea life deepest, complex life above.
Rock layers are pages; the bottom page was printed first.⚠️ Traps the test loves
- Individuals do NOT evolve — populations evolve. One moth never changes color; the mix changes.
- Organisms don’t “try” to adapt — the variation existed FIRST; the environment sorts it after.
- “Fittest” means best FIT to the environment — not strongest.
- Humans didn’t come from monkeys — we share a common ancestor. Cousins, not grandparents.
- A scientific “theory” isn’t a guess — it’s an explanation backed by mountains of evidence.
🧾 The evidence files
- Fossils: the historical record — order of appearance, transitional forms.
- Homologous structures: same bone layout in arm, flipper, wing = shared ancestor.
- Vestigial structures: leftover parts (whale hip bones) from ancestors that used them.
- DNA: the closer the relatives, the more similar the code — the strongest modern evidence.
🎯 How the test will ask
- A scenario: environment changes — which variant spreads? Answer with VIST, in order.
- Connect a trait’s advantage to REPRODUCTION, not just survival.
- The classic essay: peppered moths, finch beaks, or antibiotic resistance — all the same VIST story.
✅ Before the test, can you…
- Say the four VIST steps with an example?
- Explain why individuals can’t evolve?
- Read a rock-layer diagram and order fossils by age?
- Explain what matching arm/flipper/wing bones prove?
- Explain antibiotic resistance with natural selection?
| Term | Meaning in 10 words or less |
|---|---|
| Evolution | Change in a population’s traits over generations. |
| Natural selection | Helpful variations survive and reproduce more. |
| Variation | Trait differences among individuals of a species. |
| Adaptation | An inherited trait that improves survival or reproduction. |
| Fitness | How well an organism survives AND reproduces here. |
| Speciation | One species splitting into two (often by isolation). |
| Extinction | A species disappearing forever. |
| Fossil | Preserved remains or traces of ancient life. |
| Relative age | Older or younger, judged by layer depth. |
| Transitional fossil | Shows features of two groups (fins AND legs). |
| Homologous structures | Same bone plan, different jobs — shared ancestor. |
| Vestigial structure | A leftover, reduced body part from an ancestor. |
| Common ancestor | The shared “grandparent species” of two groups. |
| Artificial selection | Humans, not nature, choosing who reproduces. |
Pick your level
Look back at anything you missed — the hint that appeared is exactly what to reread tonight.
How sure did you feel?
For the teacher — this device only
One practice row, built from what happened on this screen. Independent means right on the first tap; supported means right after the explain-and-retry, or a self-marked ‘I had it’ on a revealed model answer. Both are real evidence and neither is a grade.
- Date
- —
- Topic
- —
- Level
- —
- Independent
- 0 of 0
- Supported
- 0 of 0
- Hints used
- 0
- Cards studied
- 0
- Confidence
- —
The key prints only from this drawer, for the unit on screen. The student print button prints the study pages and a blank quiz — never the answers.