A Computer-base SimBio Exploration of Evolution
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Lab
Summary
This tutorial-style lab investigates the requirements for evolution by natural selection using an engaging simulation of crab predation on snails. Students are able to manipulate the snail population to sequentially “turn off” variation, heritability, and differential survival based on shell thickness to investigate the importance of each of these factors. The lab, designed by SimBio, is intended to challenge, dispel and reform common misconceptions about how natural selection operates. Our adaptation on this lab makes the exploration a bit more inquiry-based by allowing students formulate evolutionary hypotheses and experimental predictions. Students then use the outcomes of the experiment to assess their hypotheses and therefore reform or deepen their understanding of evolutionary theory. |
Conceptual Learning Objectives - Upon completion of this lab, students should be able to
- explain why variation and heritability are necessary in order for natural selection to occur
- explain how selective pressure (in this lab, a choosy predator) can cause a population to evolve
- understand the importance of mutation to natural selection
- understand how variation and mutation affect the limits of a population’s potential to evolve
- discuss common misperceptions about natural selection, and explain what is actually driving change in populations.
- explain how natural selection is the driving force behind evolution
Scientific Skills - In this lab students practice and receive feedback on
- interpreting histograms to examine shifts in morphological characters over generations
- generating hypotheses and make predictions for experiments with simulated data
- interpreting trends in graphs to evaluate the validity of hypotheses
Required Materials
- Darwinian Snails SimBio computer simulation
- Student team computers