Population variation and survival needs are the focus of this Grade 7 science worksheet on diversity, survival, and evolution. Students investigate how organisms depend on resources such as food, water, space, light, air, and nutrients, and how environmental changes can influence populations over generations. The central concept is that inherited variation exists before conditions change, and traits that improve survival and reproduction may become more common over time.

Using examples involving drought, food shortages, insects with different body colours, and birds with different beak shapes, students distinguish an individual's response to its surroundings from changes in inherited trait frequency across generations.

Explore competition, variation, and natural selection

The reading passage introduces resource limitations, competition, inherited traits, environmental pressures, and population change. Students examine why organisms may compete when resources become scarce and why a trait that is helpful in one environment may not be equally helpful in another.

The activities reinforce the distinction between an individual changing its behaviour and a population changing over generations. Students also consider how scientists use observations, measurements, and models to investigate populations, why models simplify real situations, and why evidence, alternative explanations, and uncertainty matter when drawing conclusions.

Science skills students put into practice

Multiple-choice questions address survival resources, competition, inherited variation, environmental change, population differences, scientific models, and evidence for changes in inherited traits. True-or-false statements reinforce key ideas about limited resources, inherited characteristics, and the limitations of models.

Short-answer questions ask students to explain resource competition, describe why inherited variation matters when habitats change, and compare an individual animal moving to find food with a population becoming more likely to carry an inherited feeding trait over generations. A labelled diagram, categorisation activity, and short-note task provide additional opportunities to organise and communicate scientific ideas.

What is included

• Printable Grade 7 science worksheet with a reading passage and questions about survival needs, population variation, and evolutionary change.
• Separate answer key PDF for checking student responses.
• Teacher Guide within the answer key PDF, including Learning Objectives, Teaching Tips, Discussion Questions, and Common Mistakes.
• Student Notes lines at the bottom of the worksheet for recording key ideas.

Flexible classroom use

Use this evolution and natural selection practice during a unit on diversity and survival, after introducing inherited traits, or as independent classwork and review. The examples give students a way to connect resource availability and environmental conditions with differences among individuals in a population.

The questions also provide opportunities to discuss a common misconception: organisms do not develop new inherited traits simply because they need them. Instead, students consider how existing inherited variation, differences in survival and reproduction, and changes in trait frequency can contribute to population change over many generations.

The resource identifies BC as its curriculum framework but does not provide an official curriculum code. No specific code is claimed. The separate answer key and included teacher guidance give educators practical support for reviewing responses, leading discussion, and addressing misconceptions while students develop evidence-based explanations of survival and population variation.