Selective Breeding Scientific Debate Set | Biology Science

Studying selective breeding in middle and high school science helps students understand inheritance, variation, artificial selection, genetics, agriculture, animal breeding, and how humans have shaped the traits of plants and animals over generations. A structured debate resource on selective breeding gives students an engaging, evidence based way to explore real world questions surrounding food production, animal welfare, genetic diversity, disease resistance, climate resilience, and the benefits and limitations of selective breeding.

With clear general debate guidelines and a suggested schedule, subject specific debate questions, one page primers to support students, a key vocabulary sheet, key evidence cards with short facts and sources, debate roles explained, sentence starters and topic specific sentence starters, graphic organizer templates, and a reflection sheet for after the debate, this selective breeding debate pack turns an important genetics topic into organized, student friendly learning.

THIS SELECTIVE BREEDING DEBATE SET CAN BE USED IN SO MANY WAYS:

• To extend students
• To increase scientific literacy and scientific argumentation (science related speechcraft + logical reasoning) in your class
• A entry point to a unit on this topic
• Great as a lesson filler when class goes too fast
• An exit point to a unit on this topic - for effective review
• Use a sub-topic to focus on a specific part of the unit you are covering

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THIS SELECTIVE BREEDING DEBATE SET:

• 1 Set of 15 page Google Slides, Powerpoint & PDF format of materials which contains:
• General debate guidelines + suggested schedule
• 15 proposed subject specific debate questions (on agriculture, farmer’s choice, disease / everyday use, pet related and climate change & economics)
• 4 one page primers (neutral in tone) on Food Production, Animal Welfare, Genetic Diversity and Disease & Climate Resilience.
• 1 page general neutral tone primer on this broader topic
• Key vocabulary with student friendly definitions
• A set of 12 short evidence cards for potential student use (1 fact + source)
• Explanation of debate roles
• Sentence starters for effective debate language
• 3 graphic organizers (T-chart (for vs. against), Stakeholders (benefits / risks) & Claim-Evidence-Reasoning template
• 1 page reflection sheet for after the debate
• The 3 graphic organizers in Google Doc & Microsoft Word format with fillable text books for digital use (T-chart (for vs. against), Stakeholders (benefits / risks) & Claim-Evidence-Reasoning template. These Doc versions are images with editable text boxes overlayed on top and this is the most effective way to keep things sleek and well-designed.
• 12 slide evidence cards for printing in Google Slides, Powerpoint, PDF format
• A 24 point rubric for assessment and to support marking and feedback on this activity