Hall/McDougal Name ______

1/18/11 Period_____

NATURAL SELECTION SIMULATION 2—FINCHES

Objectives:

·  Predict possible outcomes of natural selection on organisms given a set of selective pressures

·  Design an experiment to show how environmental changes create selective pressures

·  Communicate the results of a scientific experiment using graphs

·  Analyze data to determine how environmental changes create selective pressures.

Natural Selection Lab Simulation – Selective Pressures

Log on to http://www.biologylabsonline.com/ . Click on the Evolution Lab tab. To login you need to use arvadahs2010 as your login and bulldogs2010 as your password.

What will you turn in?

You will be turning your graphs on paper, and a conclusion ON YOUR WIKI! Please make a new link/page for this assignment from the Evolution page, see my wiki for an example. You will also turn in this worksheet--you need to include the hypothesis, and data for all three scenarios that you do.
You will write ONE conclusion for the entire activity.

Scenario #1:

Problem: How do changes in precipitation affect beak size of birds?

Hypothesis: If ______then ______

______because ______.

Procedure:

1.  Click on CHANGE INPUTS. Change the precipitation on Wallace island to 100cm. Do not change Darwin Island.

2.  Click on Done and then Run Experiment

3.  Record data in table below.

4.  Repeat experiment with other values for precipitation on Wallace island.

Darwin Island / Wallace Island
Precipitation / Beak Size / Years / Precipitation / Beak Size / Years
0 / 0
50 / 50
100 / 100
150 / 150
200 / 200
250 / 250

Results:

1.  Graph the results for the Wallace island. (Do this in Microsoft Excel)

2.  Paste the graph into Microsoft Word. Below the graph, summarize the trends in the data, and give a possible explanation for the data. Keep in mind that both of the islands started with the exact same birds.

For the following two scenarios, the problem that you are answering has been given to you. You need to write a hypothesis, come up with a procedure (making sure to have a control island), collect data and complete the results section.

Scenario #2

Problem: How does the size of the island affect the population of birds?

Hypothesis:

Darwin Island / Wallace Island
Precipitation / Beak Size / Years / Precipitation / Beak Size / Years
0 / 0
50 / 50
100 / 100
150 / 150
200 / 200
250 / 250

Don’t forget to graph your results, paste the graph into Word, summarize the trends in the data, and give a possible explanation for the data.

Scenario #3

Problem: How does the size of the beak affect the population of birds?

Hypothesis:

Darwin Island / Wallace Island
Precipitation / Beak Size / Years / Precipitation / Beak Size / Years
0 / 0
50 / 50
100 / 100
150 / 150
200 / 200
250 / 250

Don’t forget to graph your results, paste the graph into Word, summarize the trends in the data, and give a possible explanation for the data.

Conclusion

Choose ONE of the scenarios above to write a conclusion paragraph. Use the PHREEQ guidelines below to help, and do not use personal pronouns!

Purpose: was problem was being solved in this scenario?

Hypothesis: Restate the hypothesis for this problem.

Results: Summarize the trends in the data—what happened?

Explanation: Do the results support the hypothesis? Why or why not? Why did these results occur? Give a scientific explanation, including the words natural selection, environmental changes, and selective pressures in your explanation.

Error: If this were a REAL experiment with real birds, what would be the sources of error?

Question: What is a question for future research?