In this lesson, students investigate how natural selection affects the genetic constitution of a population over time. They design and perform an experiment about natural selection in the case of rock pocket mice using a computational model to test their hypotheses.
Unit co-designed by Sugat Dabholkar in consultation with teachers at Schurz High School
CODAP is a computational tool for data analysis and representation developed and built by The Concord Consortium at https://codap.concord.org/
The first four lessons are based on a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Biointeractive (https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/pocket-mouse-evolution)
Lesson 5 is based on the lesson Evolution in Action: The Galápagos Finches Authored by Paul Strode for Howard Hughes Medical Institute based on data collected by Peter and Rosemary Grant, Princeton University.
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (grants CNS-1138461, CNS-1441041 and DRL-1020101) and the Spencer Foundation (grant 201600069). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and/or recommendations are those of the investigators and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding organizations.
In this lesson, you will investigate how natural selection affects a population of mice over time. You will design and perform an experiment about natural selection in the case of rock pocket mice by using a computational model to test your hypothesis.
In the previous lesson, you experimented with the concept of predation. In other words, you investigated how the mice being eaten by predators affected the population of mice differently in different types of environments. In nature, some individuals with certain traits (like fur color) have better fitness to survive and create offspring that can inherit those traits. In the case of our models, mice with certain phenotypes might have a advantage over other mice in different environmental conditions. Traits that gives an advantage would get passed to the next generation. As these traits are passed from each generation to the next, this process causes populations to change over time. We call these sorts of changes in populations natural selection.
Come up with a question about natural selection in case of the pocket mice which can be answered using this model.
One example of a question that could be answered using the model: If we introduce a mutant (with a dark-fur-coat) in a population of mice with light-fur-coats that are living in a mixed background environment, how will to population change after 500 generations?
Based on your earlier exploration of the model, try to guess the answer to your question and state it in the form of a testable statement (hypothesis) - something that you can test using the model.
Design an experiment to test your hypothesis. Explain your design.
Collect data from the experiment in an excel or word file.
Describe your observations and explain whether those support your hypothesis or not.
Upload a Word, Excel or any other file here if you have used it record and analyze data. You can also just take a screenshot and upload that.
You can't upload Google Sheets or Docs Files. If you'd like to, make sure to Export them as a Word or Excel file first.
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Explain the conclusion of your experiment.
Mention and describe a big idea that you learned in this lesson.
