Preview - Understanding Genetics And Evolution With Computational Models (Sol)

Make a prediction about future of your Karnataka Straw Birds!


Read instructions very carefully about how the bird will breed and produce offspring.

Each Origami Bird lays a clutch of three.

Record the dimensions of each chick and hatch the birds using these instructions:

The first chick is exactly like the parent. In the interest of time you may substitute the parent when testing this chick.

The other two chicks have changes based on the following rules:

For each chick, flip your coin and throw your die then record the results. 

Rule 1: The coin flip determines where the mutation occurs: the head end or tail end of the bird

HEAD     ►   Head/cephalic end

TAIL        ►  Tail/caudal end

Rule 2: The die throw determines how the mutations affect the wing:

1 = The wing moves 1 cm toward the end of the straw

2 = The wing moves 1 cm away from the end of the straw

3 = The circumference of the wing increases 2 cm

4 = The circumference of the wing decreases 2 cm

5 = The width of the wing increases 1 cm

6 = The width of the wing decreases 1 cm

Lethal changes:

A change which results in a wing falling off the end of straw, or in which the circumference of the wing is smaller than the circumference of the straw, etc. is lethal.

Survival of the birds:

You will release the birds with a gentle, overhand throw, making sure that you release the birds as uniformly as possible.

You will test each bird twice.

The most successful bird is the one which can fly the farthest.

The most successful bird is the sole parent of the next generation.

 


Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Make a prediction about how a surviving bird will look like after 20 generations.


Which part of the breeding and survival processes explained before will lead to increase in the variety of birds? 


Which part of the breeding and survival processes explained before will lead to decrease in the variety of birds? 


Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.