Overview: Students learn why evolution is at the heart of a world health threat by investigating the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance in such menacing diseases as tuberculosis. Author/Source: WGBH Grade level: 9-12 Time: One to three class periods. Teaching tips: An excellent lesson to demonstrate the relevance of evolution to our daily lives. Concepts: Evolution results from selection acting upon genetic variation within a population. New heritable traits can result from recombinations of existing genes or from genetic mutations in reproductive cells. Mutations are random. Traits that confer an advantage may persist in the population and are called adaptations. Inherited characteristics affect the likelihood of an organism's survival and reproduction. Natural selection acts on the variation that exists in a population. Over time, the proportion of individuals with advantageous characteristics may increase (and the proportion with disadvantageous characteristics may decrease) due to their likelihood of surviving and reproducing. A hallmark of science is exposing ideas to testing. Scientists test their ideas using multiple lines of evidence. Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable. Scientists use multiple research methods (experiments, observational research, comparative research, and modeling) to collect data. Scientists use experimental evidence to study evolutionary processes. As with other scientific disciplines, evolutionary biology has applications that factor into everyday life. There is variation within a population. Teacher background: Genetic Variation Natural Selection Relevance

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