1. In this lab, we went outside to the field, and each of us was assigned a way to pick up "food". There were three different ways to pick up food: using both your wrists, your thumb and index finger, and in between your middle knuckles. This simulated natural selection and competition. When the people that had enough food survived and the others "died", coin flips simulated sex and meiosis. When the coins were in the air, that simulated crossing over and when they were put down together that simulated sex.
2. The pinchers were the best at picking up food. They had a good grip on the food and could stretch their beaks/fingers the furthest apart so they could technically pick up 4 pieces at one time.
3. In this lab we asked the question: Do populations evolve? We found if the gene pool and allele frequency has changed over time, then evolution has occurred. At the beginning of the lab the "A" allele had a frequency of 52% and the "a" allele had a frequency of 48%. They had an almost equal ratio. In the middle of the lab (trial 5) the "A" allele had a frequency of 34% and the "a" allele had a frequency of 66%. At the end of the lab, the "A" allele had a frequency of 28% and the "a" allele had a frequency of 72%. We can see that the "A" allele frequency steadily decreased over time while the "a" allele slowly decreased over time. This means that the population evolved since the allele frequency changed over time.
4. There were many random and non-random things in this lab. Mr. Orre randomly placed the food on the ground and it was random for who was standing closest to the most amount of food. The competitiveness and fitness of the students was also random because that played a role in determining who got the most food. The places where people stored their food was also random, because some people had big pockets, some had small pockets, and some used their jackets. The flipping of coins and offspring were random. The mate choice was not random. The way people picked up their food was not random since they were assigned a certain way to do it. This affected how well certain species survived or died off. This could have caused certain alleles to be more dominant because even though the method of picking up food may have been easy, the person may be very slow or have no place to store their food once he/she picked it up.
5. Yes, the results would have been different if the food sizes were larger or smaller. The stumpys would have died off much more slowly if the food sizes were bigger, because then it is easier to pick up. The knucklers would have had a little harder time picking up food. because they cant stretch their fingers further apart then they did with the corks. The pinchers would be better off because they would get a better grip on food. If the size was smaller, then stumpys and knucklers would have died off more rapidly, but pinchers would have grown faster. In nature due to a genetic drift, the size and type of food avaliable may be different. For example, Darwin's finches had smaller beaks because the seeds they ate were small and soft. Later, a drought occurred, and the main type of seed available was hard and big, so the finches slowly decreased in population size or evolved.
6. Yes there would be a huge difference if there was no incomplete dominance. Every time knucklers mated they would produce a stumpy. The pinchers would start inbreeding a lot more to preserve their trait. The stumpys would overtake the population but that is not necessarily the best trait because it makes obtaining food difficult.
7. Natural selection causes evolution to occur. Natural selection acts on the phenotypes that seem best suited for the environment by ensuring that only the better traits can mostly survive and reproduce. This changes the allele frequency therefore evolving the population in their genotypes which produce certain suitable phenotypes.
8. Most people did not have a main strategy while obtaining food. It felt a lot similar to "each one for himself". Individuals with the same traits did not try and get together. Some people cheated and grabbed handfuls of food, which could have resulted in errors in the results. People did not mate with who would help them survive better, but rather who would help them reproduce better offspring. The knucklers seemed to mate with the knucklers to give their children a better chance of being a knuckler or pincher rather than a stumpy. Pinchers bred with pinchers because they did not want their children to be a knuckler. It was difficult to tell the mating preferences of the stumpys because they often died before reproducing, but they tried to mate with pinchers to have a knuckler rather than a stumpy. This caused there to be a lot of knucklers in the population quite consistently. These mating choices also played a role in the decreasing number of stumpys. In nature, peacocks have large beautiful feathers to attract mates because strong feathers indicate they are better at obtaining food and the colors are attractive.
9. In evolution, the population as a whole evolves. Individuals cannot evolve since they are stuck with what their parents gave them. Natural selection acts on both the phenotype and genotype. It wants the phenotypes that reproduce and survive better, so to obtain these traits it acts on the genotypes, especially if it is a mutation, that caused the favorable phenotype. It can also act directly on the genotype to get rid of certain genetic diseases.
10. I still have a lot of questions. Could we have evolved into something completely different if a certain event had not happened? What will we evolve into? How exactly do we track evolution and know for sure what changes happened in allele frequency? Why did people reject the theory of evolution? If they rejected it, what did they believe in?
2. The pinchers were the best at picking up food. They had a good grip on the food and could stretch their beaks/fingers the furthest apart so they could technically pick up 4 pieces at one time.
3. In this lab we asked the question: Do populations evolve? We found if the gene pool and allele frequency has changed over time, then evolution has occurred. At the beginning of the lab the "A" allele had a frequency of 52% and the "a" allele had a frequency of 48%. They had an almost equal ratio. In the middle of the lab (trial 5) the "A" allele had a frequency of 34% and the "a" allele had a frequency of 66%. At the end of the lab, the "A" allele had a frequency of 28% and the "a" allele had a frequency of 72%. We can see that the "A" allele frequency steadily decreased over time while the "a" allele slowly decreased over time. This means that the population evolved since the allele frequency changed over time.
4. There were many random and non-random things in this lab. Mr. Orre randomly placed the food on the ground and it was random for who was standing closest to the most amount of food. The competitiveness and fitness of the students was also random because that played a role in determining who got the most food. The places where people stored their food was also random, because some people had big pockets, some had small pockets, and some used their jackets. The flipping of coins and offspring were random. The mate choice was not random. The way people picked up their food was not random since they were assigned a certain way to do it. This affected how well certain species survived or died off. This could have caused certain alleles to be more dominant because even though the method of picking up food may have been easy, the person may be very slow or have no place to store their food once he/she picked it up.
5. Yes, the results would have been different if the food sizes were larger or smaller. The stumpys would have died off much more slowly if the food sizes were bigger, because then it is easier to pick up. The knucklers would have had a little harder time picking up food. because they cant stretch their fingers further apart then they did with the corks. The pinchers would be better off because they would get a better grip on food. If the size was smaller, then stumpys and knucklers would have died off more rapidly, but pinchers would have grown faster. In nature due to a genetic drift, the size and type of food avaliable may be different. For example, Darwin's finches had smaller beaks because the seeds they ate were small and soft. Later, a drought occurred, and the main type of seed available was hard and big, so the finches slowly decreased in population size or evolved.
6. Yes there would be a huge difference if there was no incomplete dominance. Every time knucklers mated they would produce a stumpy. The pinchers would start inbreeding a lot more to preserve their trait. The stumpys would overtake the population but that is not necessarily the best trait because it makes obtaining food difficult.
7. Natural selection causes evolution to occur. Natural selection acts on the phenotypes that seem best suited for the environment by ensuring that only the better traits can mostly survive and reproduce. This changes the allele frequency therefore evolving the population in their genotypes which produce certain suitable phenotypes.
8. Most people did not have a main strategy while obtaining food. It felt a lot similar to "each one for himself". Individuals with the same traits did not try and get together. Some people cheated and grabbed handfuls of food, which could have resulted in errors in the results. People did not mate with who would help them survive better, but rather who would help them reproduce better offspring. The knucklers seemed to mate with the knucklers to give their children a better chance of being a knuckler or pincher rather than a stumpy. Pinchers bred with pinchers because they did not want their children to be a knuckler. It was difficult to tell the mating preferences of the stumpys because they often died before reproducing, but they tried to mate with pinchers to have a knuckler rather than a stumpy. This caused there to be a lot of knucklers in the population quite consistently. These mating choices also played a role in the decreasing number of stumpys. In nature, peacocks have large beautiful feathers to attract mates because strong feathers indicate they are better at obtaining food and the colors are attractive.
9. In evolution, the population as a whole evolves. Individuals cannot evolve since they are stuck with what their parents gave them. Natural selection acts on both the phenotype and genotype. It wants the phenotypes that reproduce and survive better, so to obtain these traits it acts on the genotypes, especially if it is a mutation, that caused the favorable phenotype. It can also act directly on the genotype to get rid of certain genetic diseases.
10. I still have a lot of questions. Could we have evolved into something completely different if a certain event had not happened? What will we evolve into? How exactly do we track evolution and know for sure what changes happened in allele frequency? Why did people reject the theory of evolution? If they rejected it, what did they believe in?
Graph showing change in allele frequency over time
Everyone runs towards the food (Picture credits to Kimi)
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