Lab report
Bio 5 Life Science Lab 12: Evolution/Natural Selection - Fitness Foraging Activity (30 points) Introduction: Your Mouth, Your Survival! Birds have different beaks, beak sizes, beak strengths, etc. Birds that exist in a particular environment together are likely competing for resources. Some beaks will be more successful than others depending on what kinds of seeds are available. So, for example, if two birds are competing for just one type of seed, one bird might eventually have a better chance of survival if it is better suited to getting that seed. On the other hand, in a different environment, another bird might have a better chance of survival. Ultimately, a bird’s ability to survive also impacts its ability to pass on its genes. Thus, birds that have better success finding food are likely to have a higher “fitness.” For example, following figure shows different finch beaks according to Darwin’s Theory. Imagine you are a mixed population of birds, each with different kinds of beaks. For this activity, your beaks are represented by one of the following: a knife, spoon, fork or chopsticks. This is a competition! Who can get more seeds? ATTENTION: you will do this lab at home. The supplies you will need: 1. Three different kinds of seeds, such as rice, beans, split peas, or other seeds you have at home. 2. Four eating utensils: fork, spoon, knife, chopsticks (if there are not chopsticks at home, you can use any random two sticks). After you collect all the supplies, here are two options for you to finish the lab work: 1. You can invite your family members to finish the lab together with you. Please follow the instructions below to collect your data. And HAVE FUN to learn biology with your family. 2. OR, you can finish the lab by yourself – you will need to follow the instructions below, but have to use one eating utensil at one time and then repeat the work using other eating utensils. ROUND 1: Original “home environment” for your birds Everyone will start out with a mixed population of seeds (beans, rice, split peas) for the birds to try to eat; each person will be a bird with ONE of the beaks (eating utensils). 1. Before you begin, make a prediction about who will be most successful (1 = most successful; 4 = least successful). 2. You will have 60 seconds to forage: PICK UP (don’t scoop) a seed, one at a time, with your beak (eating utensil), and keep a pile of what you pick up in front of you. 3. Record the number of the mixed seeds you collect for each kind of beak; calculate the relative fitness for your group. If you work alone, you will return the seeds back to the pile and repeat step 2 -3 with a different beak (eating utensil) until you finish. Environment 1: Mixed Seeds Beak Type Prediction (1 = best; 4 = worst) Actual # of mixed seeds collected Relative fitness (% of total) Fork Knife Spoon Chopsticks Notes: Relative fitness = # of seeds collected for one utensil/total # of seeds for all utensil *100 ROUND 2: Conditions change! Due to torrential rains and flooding, the available types of food in your environment have changed. This is still a competition! Who can get more seeds? You’ll be given a new environment. There will be three environmental conditions: 1. Seed type 1: rice 2. Seed type 2: bean 3. Seed type 3: split peas Each group will have four kinds of beaks but only one environment. 1. You will have 60 seconds to forage; same restrictions as before. DO NOT SCOOP! Pick up individual seeds. 2. You can start with seed type 1 – rice. Sort the mixed seeds and only leave rice on the center of your table. Record for each kind of beak the number of seeds collected. Calculate the relative fitness for each beak on the chart for your group. 3. Repeat the same experiment for seed type 2 and type 3. 4. Enter data and calculate the relative fitness. Again, if you work alone, you will need repeat the steps using one different utensil at one time until you finish. 5. Generate a bar graph with relative fitness as y-axis, and beaks (eating utensils) as x-axis, and seeds (environments) as different color bars. Please let me know if you need help. Environment 2: Seed 1 – (write down name of your seed 1): Beak Type Prediction (1 = best; 4 = worst) Actual # of mixed seeds collected Relative fitness (% of total) Fork Knife Spoon Chopsticks Environment 2: Seed 2 – (write down name of your seed 2): Beak Type Prediction (1 = best; 4 = worst) Actual # of mixed seeds collected Relative fitness (% of total) Fork Knife Spoon Chopsticks Environment 2: Seed 3 – (write down name of your seed 3): Beak Type Prediction (1 = best; 4 = worst) Actual # of mixed seeds collected Relative fitness (% of total) Fork Knife Spoon Chopsticks Lab Report (30 points) The report will be divided into five clearly marked sections. The components of each section are outlined below. Unintelligible papers will be returned and considered late until they are fixed. Before you turn in your paper, you can have the Student Resources Center for draft assistance. Please have your first draft ready by November 16. Final lab reports will be due on November 30. Section 1 – Introduction (6 pts) · 1st paragraph: general background information about evolution and natural selection · Definitions · How does natural selection work · 2nd paragraph: background information about Darwin’s theory of finch · What did he discover? · Fitness and environmental change, etc. · Good location for including some references · 3rd paragraph: background information about the experiment · Purpose of the experiment (The purpose of the following experiments was to test / discover…) · Brief summary of the experiment (In order to test this, we...) · Hypothesis and/or Prediction (Given the background, we hypothesized that… and/or We predicted that if [hypothesis], then [result]….) · Brief summary of results (We found that….) Section 2 – Materials & Methods (5 pts) · Use complete sentences! NO listing, bullets, etc. · Have subheadings for each section of the experiment. · Describe how you performed each experiment, enough so that someone reading it could repeat the experiment. · Refer to information above if some things are redundant (We ___ , as described above) Section 3 – Results (6 pts) · Have subheadings for each section (each round). · Copy and paste your data table under each section. Copy and paste your graph. You should have at least one paragraph for each section to describe your data. · Support your statements with tables, graphs (be sure to label axes!), etc. · Refer to any tables, graphs, etc. in the text (…as shown in Figure 1.) · Do not make any conclusions here! Just state the facts. Section 4 – Discussion and Conclusion (10 pts) · Divide each main section into different paragraphs (but no subheadings!). So the first set of experiments is the first paragraph, the second set is the second paragraph, etc. · For each section of the experiment, restate the hypothesis and/or prediction. · Summarize the main result for each section · Do the results support or disprove your hypothesis and/or match your predictions? · If so, why? Explain why the results support the hypothesis – this a ‘because’ kind of statement. · If not, why? · If there are ways to improve or expand the experiments, use a new paragraph to explain that here. · The final paragraph should be about the ‘big picture’ · General conclusions about what was learned during the experiment. · What is the significance of your results? How does this topic fit into the bigger picture? · What is the “so what?” · Refer back to your introduction · Future experiments · Solve the problems of these experiments · Answer the next questions Section 5 – References (3 pts) · APA Style · Examples of APA style are listed on the next page · Make sure you cite your references within text. You will get partial credit if you only list your references at the end without citing them within the text. References (APA Style): Journal articles: Fine, M. A., and Kurdek, L. A. (1993). Reflections on determining authorship credit and authorship order on faculty-student collaborations. American Psychologist, 48: 1141–1147. Huang, F., Chotiner, J.K., Steward O. (2005) The mRNA for elongation factor 1alpha is localized in dendrites and translated in response to treatments that induce long-term depression. Journal of Neuroscience, 25(31): 7199-7209. Books: Nicol, A. A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (1999). Presenting your findings: A practical guide for creating tables. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Book chapters: O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer. Web Pages (no author): New child vaccine gets funding boost. (2001). Retrieved February 2, 2008, from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/story_13178.asp Health Net Foundation. 1996 Statistics at a Glance (n.d.) Retrieved February 2, 2008, from http://hcfa.gov/stats/stathili.htm Interviews / Lectures: J. Smith, personal communication, August 15, 2001 References in the text (APA Style): More Than 2 Authors: I am the greatest thing ever, and it has been proven to be so (Chotiner et al., 2009). 2 Authors: I am the greatest thing ever, and it has been proven to be so (Chotiner and Khamou, 2009). 1 Author: I am the greatest thing ever, and it has been proven to be so (Chotiner, 2006). Webpage (no author): I am the greatest thing ever, and it has been proven to be so (http://www.msmc.la.edu/faculty/greatest).