Investigating Natural Selection Lab Activity

Name
Section Instructor
Investigating Natural Selection
Justin Black/Shutterstock.com
OBJECTIVES
Place a check mark (✓) in the box in front of each item as you complete it.
❑❑ 1. I can describe how species evolve over time.

❑❑ 2. I can describe how the process of natural selection works in a population, and
what the requirements are for natural selection to occur.
❑❑ 3. I can describe how this activity models natural selection, and how it relates to
real populations of living organisms in their environment.
❑❑ 4. I can construct bar graphs of my results to illustrate the change in my model
population over time.
MATERIALS
1. One small “Active” dish

2. Six sheets of colored construction paper (1 sheet of each of 6 different colors)
3. One piece of fabric
4. Two hole punches
5. One roll of masking tape
6. One package of colored pencils
7. One stopwatch or clock with a second hand
8. Three forceps
INTRODUCTION
In this activity, we will experience one mechanism of evolution through a simulation

that models the principles of natural selection and helps answer the question: How does
biological change occur, and how is it reinforced over time?
• Species evolve over time. Evolution refers to inherited changes in organisms over time
and is the consequence of various factors, including (1) the potential for a species to
increase in number, (2) a finite supply of the resources required for life, (3) genetic
variation among individuals in a population, and (4) the inheritance of traits from
parents to offspring.
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Name
Section Instructor
Fabric Color:____________________________________
NATURAL SELECTION DATA SHEET
Dot Color Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Black
Starting Graph
12 12 12 12 12 12
Population A
11 11 11 8 4 2
Surviving Graph
Population B
11 11 11 8 4 2
Round 1
Offspring
22 22 22 16 8 4
Surviving
Population +
Offspring
14 7 16 6 2 2
Surviving Graph
Population C
14 7 16 6 2 2
Round 2
Offspring
28 14 32 12 4 4
Surviving
Population +
Offspring
19 11 20 7 1 0
Surviving Graph
Population D
19 11 20 7 1 0
Round 3
Offspring
38 22 40 14 2 0
Surviving
Population +
Offspring
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Name
Section Instructor
NATURAL SELECTION RESPONSE SHEET
➤ Use the same y-axis scale for each graph!
Graph A Starting Population Graph B Round 1 Surviving Population
Graph C Round 2 Surviving Population Graph D Round 3 Surviving Population
red, white, orange

Fabric colors: ___________________________________________________________________________________
139
REVIEW QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions after completing this exercise.
1. Describe natural selection in your own words.

Natural selection is how well an organism is adapted to its enviroment
2. Briefly describe how your population of dots changed over the course of the experi-
ment. Which, if any, colors of dots survived better in your group than others in the
first, second, and third rounds?
The dots that had a color similar to the fabric (red, yellow, orange), all had more
surviving members than the dots that didnt match the fabric (green, blue, black).
3. Compare your results with those of another group using a different color and pat-
tern of fabric. What difference, if any, did the fabric make?
If the fabric was a different color and had a different pattern it would lead to other
colors potentially doing better
4. Look at the previous question. Sometimes people mistakenly paraphrase the concept
of natural selection as “survival of the fittest.” Can one organism be the absolute
No
“fittest”? __________ Yes
Does environment play a role in determining fitness? __________
Explain your answer.
being the fittest would imply that than organism can excell at everything, however
in the real world, most organisms would probably die off if they are not in their
native enviroment.
5. What factors, besides color, could influence a predator’s selection of prey? (Hint:
Think about real organisms, not just colored dots.)
How fast can an organism run/swim/fly. If a predator has to expend more calories
doing that then what the prey can provide it isnt worthwhile to hunt them down.
6. It’s important to remember that adaptation refers to changes in a population, not

changes in individuals. Did any individuals (dots) in your experiment change color
No
to become better suited to their environment? __________ Explain how the popula-
tion of dots could become better suited to their environment without individual
dots changing color.
The population of dots could become better suited if the ones that blend in with the
enviroment continue to live and reproduce, while the ones that cannot blend in die
off.
140
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions after viewing the fabrics and bar graphs of the entire class.
7. Look at your response to Review Question #2. What might be the reason that preda-
tors did not select these colors as much as they did other colors?
Predators did not select those colors because they were much harder to spot on the fabric
8. What effect did removing a particular color dot have on the numbers of that color
dot in the following generations?
It means that there are less offspring produced and overall lower population numbers
9. Is it possible that one color of dot might be completely removed from the popula-
Yes
tion by predation? __________ Use your data to answer whether this is possible, and
if so, to estimate how many rounds of predation would need to occur before that
happened in your model system.
It is possible as the the data from the lab showed, black was eliminated by round 3. Had
another 1-2 rounds gone by, blue would of most likely been eliminated as well.
10. Using a real-life predator–prey relationship as an example, write a para-

graph that describes how one or more characteristics of the predator population
and/or the prey population might change as a result of natural selection.
With ice caps melting, it has led to polar bears having to search new enviroments for food, as
their orginal envirment is shrinking. However in these new enviroments, polar bears usually
much more visible, since they arent always covered by snow and ice. This has led to polar
bear population declining as their prey is able to spot them and get away.
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How does the activity model natural selection?

How did the populations of different colored dots change over the course of the experiment?

Name

Investigating Natural Selection

❑❑ 1. I can describe how species evolve over time.

1. One small “Active” dish

In this activity, we will experience one mechanism of evolution through a simulation

NATURAL SELECTION DATA SHEET

Dot Color Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Black

NATURAL SELECTION RESPONSE SHEET

➤ Use the same y-axis scale for each graph!

Graph A Starting Population Graph B Round 1 Surviving Population

Graph C Round 2 Surviving Population Graph D Round 3 Surviving Population

red, white, orange

Answer the following questions after completing this exercise.

1. Describe natural selection in your own words.

6. It’s important to remember that adaptation refers to changes in a population, not

10. Using a real-life predator–prey relationship as an example, write a para-

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