March 25-26

Funky Monkey Evolution Lab: Natural Selection in Action 🐒🎲

📅 Started: March 25
📅 Due: March 26 (End of Class)
📌 Hands-on simulation of evolution, adaptation, and survival

In this two-day lab activity, students participated in an interactive simulation designed to demonstrate how natural selection and environmental changes affect populations over time. Using fictional "Funky Monkey" species, students modeled evolution based on traits, chance, and environmental pressures.

🧬 What We Did:

1️⃣ Meet the Funky Monkeys:
Each student was assigned to a group representing a different Funky Monkey species based on traits:

• Tail length (long or none)

• Diet (herbivore or carnivore)

• Fur color (brown or blonde)

2️⃣ Environmental Challenges:
The “Wrath of Nature” (your teacher) rolled a 12-sided die to reveal different environmental events from a PowerPoint (e.g., volcanic eruptions, drought, disease outbreaks, hunting, etc.).

• If an event affected your group, you pulled a chip from the "Pouch of Predestination":

  • White chip = Live or Reproduce

  • Black chip = Die or Stay Childless

3️⃣ Tracking Evolution in Action:

• Students recorded the initial and final population sizes of each Funky Monkey group.

• Constructed a double bar graph to compare changes.

• Analyzed which traits became more or less common based on survival and reproduction outcomes.

4️⃣ Post-Lab Analysis:
Students answered critical thinking questions on:

• Which groups became endangered or extinct

• Which traits became more successful and why

• How environmental changes influence natural selection and evolution over time

🌍 Why This Matters:

This lab brought natural selection and evolution to life through a fun, dramatic, and data-driven activity. It showed that adaptations are key to survival, and that populations change over time based on the environment and chance events.

✅ Fantastic work acting out evolution in real time! Let’s keep exploring how life on Earth is constantly adapting. 🧬🌿