To familiarize yourself with the application, it is recommended that you complete the following three activities before you teach the PhET Simulation Lesson to your students.
Begin by accessing the PhET Natural Selection Simulation, go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/natural-selection and click the “Run Now” button to start the simulation.
NOTE: If your school has a low bandwidth, you might consider placing the simulation on flash drives for students to access.
Activity #1: Follow these steps and discuss your observations and possible reasons for what happened with the person sitting next to you.
Action Steps:
Step 1. Select the equator environment.
Step 2. Add a friend
Step 3. Add a brown fur mutation
Step 4. Wait for three generations by observing the graph
Step 5. Add a natural selection factor of wolves
Activity #2: Click on the “Reset All” button before starting this activity. Follow these steps and discuss your observations and possible reasons for what happened with the person sitting next to you.
Action Steps:
Step 1. Select the equator environment.
Step 2. Add a friend
Step 3. Add a “Brown Fur” mutation
Step 4. Wait for three generations by observing the graph
Step 5. Add a natural selection factor of food
Activity #3: Click on the “Reset All” button before starting this activity. Follow these steps and discuss your observations and possible reasons for what happened with the person sitting next to you.
Action Steps:
Step 1. Select the equator environment.
Step 2. Add a friend
Step 3. Add a “Long Teeth” mutation
Step 4. Add a “Long Tail” mutation
Step 5. Wait for a few generations
Step 6. Add a natural selection factor of wolves
Step 7. Experiment with the dominant and recessive genes to determine the outcome of the bunny population.
Change the location of the environment to Arctic and repeat the activities above. Discuss with the person sitting next to you other ways to use this simulation in class.