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Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________
Student Exploration: Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Vocabulary: adaptation, allele, allele sequence, chromosome, evolution, fitness, gene, genotype, mutation, natural selection, phenotype, trait
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
- Imagine a white lizard and a brown lizard sitting on a brown rock. A hawk is circling overhead hunting for its next meal. Which lizard do you think the hawk would most likely try to catch? Explain your choice.
- Now imagine that the same two lizards were sitting on a dune of white sand. Which lizard do you think the hawk would then most likely try to catch? Why?
Gizmo Warm-up How long could a parrot survive in Antarctica? It would probably not survive long. Parrots do not have adaptations —or helpful characteristics—to survive icy cold weather. Because of this, a parrot is not fit for Antarctica. Fitness describes how well an organism can survive and reproduce in an environment.
In the Evolution: Mutation and Selection Gizmo™, you will see how a species’ fitness can change over time as it becomes better adapted to its environment.
- On the SIMULATION pane, what is the Average fitness of the population? _____________
- On the CONTROLS pane, experiment with the Background color sliders.
A. Which background color results in the highest fitness? ________________________
B. Which background color results in the lowest fitness? ________________________
Activity A:
Inherited variation
Get the Gizmo ready: Set the red value to 100 , the green value to 255, and the blue value to 50 on the CONTROLS panel.
Introduction: An organism’s traits , or characteristics, are controlled by genes. Genes are located on rod-like structures called chromosomes. Different versions of genes that code for the same trait are called alleles. In this Gizmo, there are 3 genes on each chromosome. For each gene there are eight possible alleles: W (white), R (red), G (green), B (blue), C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black).
Question: Where does variation in a population come from?
- Observe: Hold your cursor over one of the insects on the SIMULATION pane. The two rod- like structures under Genotype on the CONTROLS pane represent chromosomes. The three letters next to each chromosome represent alleles.
Which alleles does the insect have? ____________________________________________
The alleles carried on an organism’s chromosomes make up the organism’s genotype.
- Observe: An organism’s alleles combine to produce a trait. The physical expression of that trait is a phenotype. In the Gizmo, phenotype is expressed in red, green, and blue values.
A. What is the phenotype of the insect? Red: _____ Green: _____ Blue: _____
B. What color is the insect? __________________
- Run Gizmo: Move the Sim. speed slider all the way to the left. Click Play ( ). You will see the insects move to the left in pairs. The pairs mate and produce a set of four offspring. As soon as you see at least one offspring with an oval around it, click Pause ( ). Move your cursor over the circled offspring.
A. What is its genotype and phenotype? _____________________________________
B. How does its genotype and phenotype differ from the non-circled offspring?
- Explain: The change in the circled offspring’s genotype was caused by a mutation. A mutation is a change in a gene. Mutations happen when a mistake is made when a cell’s chromosomes are copied. How might mutations introduce variation into a population?
(Activity A continued on next page)
Activity B:
Survival of the fittest
Get the Gizmo ready: Click Reset ( ). Set red to 255 , green to 0 , and blue to 13 0. Move the mutation rate slider to 1.0.
Question: Are some organisms more likely to survive and reproduce than others?
- Count: Move the Sim. speed slider all the way to the left. Click Play.
A. After the parents mate, click Pause. How many offspring are there? _____________
B. Click Play. After the birds eat, click Pause. How many offspring are left? _________
In nature, as in the Gizmo, more offspring are born than can survive long enough to reproduce. Because of this, the offspring must compete with one another for survival. In this Gizmo, the insect offspring compete to avoid being eaten by birds.
- Observe: Move the Sim. speed slider one notch to the right. Click Play , and wait for about 20 generations to pass. You should see a variety of insect phenotypes. (If not, click Play and wait until you do.)
A. What different colors of insects do you see? ________________________________
B. How do you think this variation might affect the competition between the offspring?
- Analyze: Scroll over the insects and note their fitness (shown under the Phenotype ). The fitness of an organism reflects how likely it is to survive and produce offspring. Each insect is given a percentage that reflects its chances of surviving to reproduce.
Compare the fitness percentages to the insect colors. How does fitness relate to the color of
the insects? _______________________________________________________________
- Predict: How do you think an insect’s fitness will affect is chances of being eaten by birds?
(Activity B continued on next page)
Activity B (continued from previous page)
- Collect data: In nature, chance alone can affect whether an individual survives. However, general trends in survival rates can be seen by studying a larger group of individuals.
Move the Sim. speed slider all the way to the left. Click Play , and then click Pause when all the offspring are visible. Write the generation number and the average fitness of all the offspring in the first two spaces of the table below.
Next, click Play , and then click Pause immediately after the birds have fed and the 10 survivors are visible. Mouse over each survivor and record its fitness. Find the average fitness of the survivors by adding these values and dividing by 10.
Repeat this experiment two more times, recording your results in the table.
Generation Ave. fitness Survivor fitness values Ave. survivor fitness
- Recognize trends: Study the table above. What trends do you see? ___________________
- Analyze: In most situations, were the fittest insects or the least fit insects most likely to survive? Explain how the data from your experiment supports your answer.
- Think and discuss: The principle of natural selection states that the best adapted organisms are most likely to survive and reproduce. Was this demonstrated in your experiment? Explain.
Activity C (continued from previous page)
- Predict: Based on what you have just seen, how do you think the population will evolve if you made the Background color purple?
- Test: Set red to 120, green to 0, and blue to 160 to make a purple background. Click Play. After 300 more generations have passed, click Pause.
Was your prediction correct? Explain. ___________________________________________
- Make connections: Why do you think it is necessary for there to be variation in a population in order for evolution by natural selection to occur?
- Make connections: Why is it necessary for traits to be inherited for evolution to take place?
- Apply: Look carefully at the picture below and you will see an insect called a katydid. Katydids evolved from grasshoppers through natural selection. Use what you have learned to explain how this could have happened.
