Bio 101 Evolution Lab
Evolution Lab
BIO/101
Pooja Thakur
7-23-12
Evolution Resulting From Natural Selection
INTRODUCTION The Evolution Lab simulates environmental situations to determine effects on evolution over periods of time. This lab experiments with the evolution of finches on two different islands over 100, 200, and 300 years. By manipulating parameters that influence natural selection, the effects that natural selection have on the evolution process can be studied.
HYPOTHESES • The size of the island will influence the population. • The amount of precipitation will influence beak size. • Variances in beak size will influence beak size.
MATERIALS The materials needed for this experiment consist of a computer and access to the Evolution Lab on the University of Phoenix student website. In the Evolution Lab there are two islands, Darwin Island and Wallace Island. There are seven variables that can be changed to run many different experiments on both islands. The variables are beak size, variance of beak size, heritability, clutch size, island size, population, and precipitation.
METHODS In all of the experiments Darwin Island was used as the control group and Wallace Island was the experimental group. So, in each test, the variables for Wallace Island were altered and the variables for Darwin Island were left alone. The first experiment was to determine whether or not the size of the island affected the population. To do this, the only variable that needed to be changed was island size. Darwin Island was left at 0.5 km and Wallace Island was changed to 1.0 km. The experiment was run over 300 years then the data was collected. The second step was to test beak size in relation to the amount of precipitation each island received. The only variable that was changed was precipitation for Wallace Island. The amount of precipitation was changed from 20 cm to 40 cm, double that of Darwin Island. Then the data was collected after revisiting in
BIO/101
Pooja Thakur
7-23-12
Evolution Resulting From Natural Selection
INTRODUCTION The Evolution Lab simulates environmental situations to determine effects on evolution over periods of time. This lab experiments with the evolution of finches on two different islands over 100, 200, and 300 years. By manipulating parameters that influence natural selection, the effects that natural selection have on the evolution process can be studied.
HYPOTHESES • The size of the island will influence the population. • The amount of precipitation will influence beak size. • Variances in beak size will influence beak size.
MATERIALS The materials needed for this experiment consist of a computer and access to the Evolution Lab on the University of Phoenix student website. In the Evolution Lab there are two islands, Darwin Island and Wallace Island. There are seven variables that can be changed to run many different experiments on both islands. The variables are beak size, variance of beak size, heritability, clutch size, island size, population, and precipitation.
METHODS In all of the experiments Darwin Island was used as the control group and Wallace Island was the experimental group. So, in each test, the variables for Wallace Island were altered and the variables for Darwin Island were left alone. The first experiment was to determine whether or not the size of the island affected the population. To do this, the only variable that needed to be changed was island size. Darwin Island was left at 0.5 km and Wallace Island was changed to 1.0 km. The experiment was run over 300 years then the data was collected. The second step was to test beak size in relation to the amount of precipitation each island received. The only variable that was changed was precipitation for Wallace Island. The amount of precipitation was changed from 20 cm to 40 cm, double that of Darwin Island. Then the data was collected after revisiting in
References: 1. Evolution Lab (2011) Evolution Lab. http://www.biologylabsonline.com/axia/EvolutionLab/evlab.php.