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Despite its foundational importance to importance to biology and other sciences, students often have difficulty understanding the concept of evolution. Other research has shown that the most common student-held misconceptions about natural selection are rooted in misunderstandings about heredity. This study examined middle school students’ conceptual understanding of evolution and change over time following engagement with a new, NGSS-friendly curriculum unit that integrates heredity and evolution concepts. Here we report preliminary findings from post-unit interviews with 21 pairs of middle school students that utilized a stimulated recall method to explore their thinking with respect to the unit’s MythUnderstood capstone activity, which integrated four major heredity and natural selection science ideas. The majority of student groups (81%) were able to identify and explain that Kangaroo’s traits in the story were acquired and could not be inherited by her offspring and that the changes in the traits cannot happen in a short period of time (72%). However, only 42% of the student groups were able to articulate that the trait changes in the Kangaroo population are not possible when only the traits of a single kangaroo are altered and only five student groups (24%) were able to discuss all four science ideas. Despite their inability to give a full explanation, students’ responses show that their thinking had moved away from the wide-spread misconception that organisms can change their traits at will in response to environmental conditions.