Survival of the Fittest

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

6th Grade Science / Life Science

Purpose/Rationale: The purpose of this activity is to give students a hands-on approach to learning relationships of mutation, adaptation and natural selection. The student will also be able to understand graphing and how data are organized and interpreted. Students will be able to take what they have learned during the activity and apply it to real life situations involving science.

Safety Issues: Check with your students for any allergies or health issues related to chocolate or sugar. You might also want to check with your schools administration about its nutrition rules.

Relevant Standards of Learning:

LS.1The student will plan and conduct investigations in which

a)data are organized into tables showing repeated trials and means;

b)variables are defined;

c)models are constructed to illustrate and explain phenomena;

d)sources of experimental error are identified;

e)dependent variables, independent variables, and constants are identified;

f)variables are controlled to test hypotheses, and trials are repeated;

g)interpretations from a set of data are evaluated and defended; and

h)an understanding of the nature of science is developed and reinforced.

LS.14The student will investigate and understand that organisms change over time. Key concepts include

a)the relationships of mutation, adaptation, natural selection, and extinction;

b)how environmental influences, as well as genetic variation, can lead to diversity of organisms.

Materials:

Construction paper or any colored paper that matches the candy. Ex: red, orange, yellow, green, black, white (not an M&M color)
M&M candy (could use any colored candy)
Crayons
Boxes for the Habitat
Stop watch
Plastic baggies
Activity sheet for students to record their data on. Also to analyze our data.

Procedure for Teaching:

Students will collect data and then discuss and graph their findings.

Before class prepare the boxes with the needed supplies. This will save time and make it easier for everyone. Each box should contain: construction paper, M&Ms (1 baggie with 50 M&Ms, 10 of each color) and crayons.

Engagement: 10 minutes

Split students into groups of 3 or 4 at the most but no fewer than 2 students per group. Have the groups brainstorm different animals that they know that are camouflaged (2 min.) Have one person from the group go to the board and write what they have come up with.

Start a short discussion by asking what would happen if there were two of the same organism living in an area and one survived better than the other. What might the one that survived better have that the other one doesn’t?

Exploration: 20 minutes

Start activity. Have each group do the activity with the red construction paper only.
After each group has collected their data ask the students how they would represent their data.
How could we display our data so that someone might understand what happened?
Why might some representations (graphs) be better than others for this activity?
Have your students place the red construction paper into the box (this is the habitat), have students spill the bag on M&Ms into the habitat. The student that is the “hunter” will have 10 seconds to gather as many prey as they can (see more detailed instructions on the student activity page.)
Ask your student what they observed during the first “hunt” on the red paper.

Explanation: 10-20 minutes:

Question students about how they arranged their data in the graph
Go over how to make a bar graph as a class and graph the first group of data together.

Discuss the problems associated with surviving in the environment.
Why might we want to explore different colors of habitat?
Come up with a hypothesis, Independent and dependent variables (there could be more than one.)

Elaboration: 40 minutes

Here students practice their graphing skills while collecting more data.
To practice these skills students will do the activity with the rest of the habitats. (orange, yellow, green, black, and white)
Students will discuss in their groups what each set of graph shows and compare and contrast it to the other graphs they drew.
Go over main terms (found on the activity sheet)

Assessment: 100 point activity

Participation and being actively engaged the whole time: 10 points
Students for homework will answer #7 on page 2. This question is open-ended and will be used as part of the assessment for the activity. Graded for a total of 50 points
Students should also attach a short paragraph describing what might have been an error in the activity that made it confusing or difficult to do. (This could include how the construction paper may have not matched exactly or the M&Ms got eaten too early during the activity!) Graded for 10 points.
The activity sheet will be collected and graded (graphing section is 15 pts, and questions are 15 pts: assignment is worth a total of 30 pts.

Name:______Period:______Date:______

Survival of the Fittest!

In this experiment, you will test how adaptation and survival work by using M&M candies as your prey. You will hunt for the M&M's in different colored "habitats" to test whether some M&M's do better in some habitats than others. Then you can discover which M&M's are best suited to survive in each habitat.

Procedure:

1)Sort all of your M&M’s into a plastic baggie. There should be 10 of each color (red, orange, yellow, green and black) for a total of 50 M&Ms in your bag.

2)Prepare your first habitat (red) by placing the paper in the box provided. Pour the contents of the baggie into the box. Pick one person in your group to “hunt” for the “prey”. You will have 10 seconds.

3)Record your data on the graphing worksheet.

4)After you collect your data from the red habitat, discuss as a class the best way to display your data. What graph would be better and why? Explain how to se up a bar graph. (teacher see the lesson plan instructions)

5)Continue collecting your data by changing your habitat: orange, yellow, green, black and white) by putting a colored paper into the bottom of the box you have been given.

6)Again pour out the contents of the baggie into the box. Turn the candy over so the “m” is not showing. ( you will do this procedure for all of the colored paper)

7)Pick one person to “hunt” for the “prey” (M&M’s). The person will have 10 seconds to eat or pick out as many M&Ms as they can. The person must stand up while hunting.

8)You are only allowed to pick up one at a time and must either eat the candy or put it back into its bag before you take another color.

9)At the end of 10 seconds count the number of “prey” remaining in the habitat. Record your findings on the charts and graphs provided.

Nature can be brutal. The harsh reality is that if you are not a hunter, then you are being hunted. What do animals do to keep from being eaten? List some ways you have seen animals keep from being eaten or killed. ______

______

This pattern of animals developing strategies to survive is called adaptation... You may have heard the famous phrase, "survival of the fittest," that Charles Darwin used to describe this natural phenomenon. In order to survive in nature, you need to be fit, and fitting in to your environment is very important to avoid being eaten.

Today we will be doing an experiment testing the survival of the fittest. The most common way that animals can avoid being eaten by a predator is by an adaptation called camouflage. Camouflage is a set of colorings or markings on an animal that help it to blend in with the surroundings and increase its chance for survival. The surrounding environment that the animal hides in is called the habitat, or the place where the animal lives.

Main terms: Habitat, camouflage, prey, predator, survival of the fittest

Problem: What can an animal do to help its survival? Pretend you were a brother or a sister of another “prey” that got eaten, what could you do to keep from the same fate? Tell where you live and what you would do.______

Hypothesis: What was the hypothesis we were testing?

Independent Variable:

Dependent Variable:

Let’s Discuss! Analysis and Conclusion:

Think of other animals that are camouflaged. Why are horseshoe rabbits white in the winter and gray in the summer?______
Who might wear camouflage clothing for their jobs? Why?______
Would you wear the same clothes if you were trying to camouflage yourself in the desert or jungle? Why or why not?______
Do you notice any interesting patterns between the color of the paper and the color of the M&M's that are eaten?______
What is different about the white "habitat" than the other colored habitats?______
How do you think this same survival strategy would work in the wild?______
Explain how human society might be different if people were able to change their color skin texture as quickly and effectively as cuttlefish. What effects would this have on clothing and makeup? On technology? On racism?______

Conclusions from your graphs.

Do you notice any patterns in your graphs, if so what were they? ______
Do any colors particularly stand out? ______
Do you see any pattern between the color habitat and the colors of M&M’s remaining? ______
Why might there be a pattern between the habitat and “prey” remaining?______
What variables in your experiment could have affected your results? (for example: the time you had to “hunt for your prey”) ______
What would the 10 second time limit represent in the real world? ______

Habitat / Red M&M’s Remaining / Orange M&M’s
Remaining / Yellow M&M’s
Remaining / Green M&M’s
Remaining / Black M&M’s
Remaining
Starting Number
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Black
White

Name:______

Graphing Worksheet

Remaining Counts of M&M’s After 10 seconds.

Red / Orange / Yellow / Green / Black

Directions for graphs: Label your habitat color, and make a bar graph of how many M&M’s of each color are left after 10 seconds. *each box represents one M&M

Title: The effect of habitat on prey survival. Habitat Color:____RED______

Red / Orange / Yellow / Green / Black

Title: The effect of habitat on prey survival. Habitat Color:______

Teachers Note: you will need 5 copies of this page (orange, yellow, green, black, and white)

K. Sobolewski TEDU 540 Fall 2006