Pre-Viewing questions:

1. What is the result of reproduction?

2. Why do organisms bother to reproduce? Why don't they just live forever?

3. What would eventually happen to a species if every member suddenly lost its ability to

reproduce? Watch the Single-Celled Organisms video and discuss the following:
1. What type of reproduction -- asexual or sexual -- do most single-celled organisms use?

2. What must a single-celled organism do before it can reproduce?

3. When a single-celled organism reproduces, what is the result?

4. In what ways, if any, does a single-celled organism differ from its parent?

Watch the Floral Arrangements video and discuss the following:

1. What type of reproduction -- asexual or sexual -- do most plants use?

2. What nonliving force do plants rely on most often for pollination?

3. What are some of the ways in which plants encourage or trick animals into carrying their

pollen to other plants?

4. What proportion of each parent plant's genetic material does each offspring plant have?

Show the Asexual Reproducers video and discuss the following:

1. What type of reproduction -- asexual or sexual -- do the whiptail lizards in the video use?

2. How many parents do whiptail lizards have?

3. How do young whiptail lizards differ from their parents, if at all?

4. How much of their parent's genetic material do whiptail lizards have?

Play two rounds of the mating game. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/sex/mating/ Consider why some species might have evolved reproductive strategies that require a lot of energy and that allow individual organisms to pass only half of their genes on to their offspring. Ask students what benefits they think sexual selection might have.

Watch the The Red Queen video and discuss the following:
1. What are the differences between the two species of minnows featured in the video?

2. Which species -- the asexual or the sexual reproducers -- tends to be more heavily

parasitized by the worm that causes black-spot disease?

3. How are the sexual reproducers able to evolve defenses against parasites more quickly and

more effectively than their asexual counterparts