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Natural Selection Simulation Lab Report
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to help students understand the mechanics of natural selection by working with a hypothetical population of organisms in a hypothetical environment.
Hypothesis: I think that there will be more newspaper squares that survive and reproduce than the colored and white paper squares by the end of the experiment.
Materials:
Sheet of Newspaper
10 Newspaper Squares
10 Colored Paper Squares
10 White Paper Squares
Procedure:
1. Working in teams of four, have one student (the keeper/ caretaker) set up the environment before each round. The other three in the group acts as predators and remove the prey before they can reproduce. Everyone in the group collects and analyzes data.
2. Lay the sheet of newspaper on the table. This will be the environment and where the prey lives.
3. “Predators” turn their backs or close their eyes while the caretaker spreads the colored squares (prey) uniformly over the newspaper.
4. The caretaker collects 10 squares from each of the prey population and scatters them across the newspaper.
5. Each predator may look at the environment only when it is his or her turn. The predator selects the first 5 prey that they see. The predator should pick the prey that is easiest to see. The other predators should have their eyes closed.
6. The caretaker removes all the individuals left on the environment and counts these survivors according to their type. Now have the group enter the data in the appropriate sections of table 9.1.
7. Let the survivors reproduce before the next round. For each survivor, the caretaker adds one individual of the same type. The next generation will then include survivors and offspring. This should bring the total prey number back to 30 in the environment.
8. Repeat the predation and reproduction procedures of all three populations...