Battling Beaks

Battling Beaks
Analysis:
1. The ____-tined forkbird was the most successful. I know this because __________________
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Here is a graph of my data. *See data on last page*
1-tined forkbirds
2-tined forkbirds
3 tined forkbirds
2. After many generations, the number of 1-tined forkbirds _____________________________
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3. After many generations, the number 2-tined forkbirds _______________________________
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4. After many generations, the number of 4-tined fordbirds _____________________________
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5. When we rolled the dice, there was a big chance that we could change the kind of forkbird we
had. If we had to roll a 3 in order to change our type of forkbird, I think the kinds of forkbirds
we had would have changed because _______________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
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6. The forkbird activity helped to show how natural selection works because _______________
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The forkbirds we studied are a single species. They might look a little different, but they
are all part of the same population.
7. If the food for the forkbirds were blueberries, over time I think that the ____-tine forkbirds
would be the most successful because ______________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________________.
8. If the food for the forkbirds were sunflower seeds, over time I think that the ____-tined
forkbirds would be the most successful because ______________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________________.
BONUS: The cheetah, an extremely fast and efficient hunter, is an endangered species.
The few cheetahs alive today show very little variation.
One reason cheetahs might be going extinct is _______________________________________
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Lab Summary:
Students all started with a 2-tined “forkbird” (plastic fork). They were given ~30 seconds to
scoop as many “Wild Loops” (Cheerios) into a plastic cup as they could. The two students at
the table who scooped the most cheerios survived. The two who scooped the least “respawned”
as a new type of bird based on the role of a die. Below is the class set of data.
Key vocabulary for this lesson:
Variation
Mutation
Natural Selection
Extinction
Generation 1-Tined Bird 2-Tined Bird 4-Tined Bird
Initial 0 28 0
1 2 20 6
2 3 13 12
3 4 8 16
4 4 6 18
5 1 4 23
6 3 3 22
7 1 7 20
8 4 6 18
9 7 3 18
10 3 2 15