Performance Objective:
Given computer-based simulations and a worksheet, students will write about the difference between natural and artificial selection using actual evidence from the textbook and correctly identify assessment items as “natural” or “artificial” at least 3 of 4 times.
Given the guidelines and materials for an interactive adaptation roleplay game, students will chart population changes over time and use that data to correctly identify the 3 adaptations (out of 6 total) that helped organisms compete most successfully.
Content: Journal Prompt:
“A small, short-furred, gray animal called a divo lives on an island. This island is the only place on Earth where divos live. The island habitat is warm and provides plenty of the divos' only food - tree ants. The divos live high in the treetops, hidden from predators.
One year the habitat experienced a drastic change that lasted for most of the year. It became very cold and even snowed. All of the ants died. The trees lost their leaves, but plenty of seeds and dried leaves were on the ground.
1. Which of the things do you think happened to most of the divos living on the island after their habitat changed?
-A. The divos' fur grew longer and thicker.
-B. The divos switched to eating seeds.
-C. The divos dug holes to live under the leaves or rocks.
-D. The divos hibernated through the cold period until the habitat was warm again.
-E. The divos died.
2. Explain your thinking. How did you decide?”
Bird Beak Buffet
Watch at least the first 2:30 of the bird beak adaptations movie.
Play the Bird Beak Buffet game. Consider using 30-second sections of the chicken dance or another bird-related song for rounds of feeding.
Make a multiple line graph with time on the x axis and population on the y axis. Each beak type is a separate line. This can be done using this Microsoft Excel Bird Beak Data template.
Debrief Questions:
Which normal beak (chopstick or spoon) competed most successfully (use data to support your answer)?
Explain which mutation (clothespin or string) competed most successfully (use data to support your answer).
Considering all beak types, if you came back in 10,000 years (and the climate stayed the same), which type of beak would be most common and why?
What was the most difficult thing to do in this challenge?
How did things change for the birds when the environment/climate changed?
How does this connect to real birds (or other species)?
What does "survival of the fittest" mean in this game?
After the lesson or the next day, look back at the Bird Beak graph the class made and make direct connections to following steps the process of natural selection.
Overpopulation
Increased Competition
Variation in Traits
More Fit = Survival
Fit Genes --> Offspring
See a 10-minute video that is edited together with parts of this lesson in action here.
Larkeys
Do the following from the Larkey Simulation link below:
Carefully read the "Genetics Key" to start, and, when it appears, the "Survival Rules". Take your time to click through the larkeys and traits.
You need to hit the "let 'em breed" button repeatedly, then choose "Forest" environment when asked.
Fill in the Parent and F6 data in the Larkeys assignment, answer questions 1 and 2, then click "New Study."
This time, choose "Prairie" environment when asked.
Complete the data tables and questions 3 and 4 on the Larkeys assignment.
Here is the Larkey Simulation link: http://archive.fossweb.com/beta/Heredity_Adaptation/natural_html5.html
Tips: Refresh your browser between trials to reset the simulation to default settings.
Artificial Selection
How "fit," meaning more apt to reproduce, is an orange with very few or no seeds? The answer is, "not very." So how did such oranges come about? The answer is, "artificial selection via selective breeding," which humans do all the time.
Access the “Legends of Learning” game playlist below.
Play the "Artificial Selection via Selective Breeding" games playlist: https://app.legendsoflearning.com/join/YXNzaWdubWVudC0zMjcyNjEy?google=true
These games are on the Legends of Learning platform (students log in with their school Google accounts as they normally do).
If you don't have access to or don't want to play video games, do the following:
Read pp.58-59 of the Populations and Ecosystems book.
Answer the questions on the Natural and Unnatural Selection assignment sheet.
If the games are not available, go to login.legendsoflearning.com, click the student access button, click “Play Teacher Playlists”, and use LIEBER3 as the teacher code.
Lesson Plan Summary:
The lesson includes a natural selection journal prompt, online simulations to model natural and artificial selection with associated worksheet, a reading and worksheet on artificial and natural selection, and a bird beak modeling activity/game. The lesson involves cognitivist (the analysis of data and application of natural selection principles to the initial computer-based simulations and bird beak game), and constructivist (the bird beak buffet project allowing students to develop their own understanding of how natural selection works) techniques.