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Amy Lark & Robert T. Pennock

In this exercise, students perform a series of experiments to determine the relationships among variation, selection, and fitness. Drawing from patterns in data they collect, they then develop a hypothesis about how bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics.

Key concepts​

  • Selection
  • Fitness
  • Evolutionary tradeoffs

This lesson fits well in courses that want a strong connection between abstract evolutionary concepts and antibiotic resistance as a biologically meaningful problem.

What students do​

  • compare experimental outcomes under different selective conditions
  • connect observed patterns to fitness differences
  • explain how selection can produce resistance-related outcomes

Asset status​

The legacy lesson title is preserved here, but the corresponding handout PDFs have not yet been imported into this repo-local curriculum bundle.