Curtis Romero

Natural Selection Lab Report

Introduction
The Darwin Finch from the Galapagos Island, has become one of the
most widely known birds due to its quick adaptation to its environment.
According to Creation.com, during drought years, as finches depleted the
supply of small seeds, selection favored those with larger, deeper beaks
capable of getting at the remaining large seeds and thus surviving, which
shifted the population in that direction. This fits the exact definition for the
process of evolution. Similar to when you look for food at your house, if you
ate all the healthy food and there was only junk food left, your body is going
to adapt to that junk food. That doesnt mean that birds with smaller beaks
will completely die out. In fact, National Geographic News says in response,
the medium ground finch evolved to have an even smaller beak, making the
species more adept at eating small seeds that didn't interest the larger
finch. In our experiment, each of us would be given a different tool
signifying a different beak type like the finches. Then we used sunflower
seeds to signify the finches food source.
I was given a large hair clip to start with. I figured that everyone with a
hair clip would lose them within 3 rounds and that tweezers would end up
growing the most. My logic behind this was that the seeds would fall
between the spaces in the hair clip and that tweezers were much easier to
pick up smaller objects.
Materials and Methods
For this project we did an in class lab where each student was given a
different tool to pick up sunflower seeds that were spread on the tables.
These tools were Tongs; Chip clips, large hair clips, Binder clips, Tweezers,
Cloths pins, Chopsticks and Small hair clips. We were given a minute each
round for 5 rounds to see who could pick up the most seeds. At the end of
the round, the 3 people who picked up the most seeds and the 3 people who
picked up the least would go to the front. Those who picked up the least
amount of seeds would lose their tools completely. They would then each
receive 1 of the 3 tools from those who picked up the most.
Results
After all was said and done, clothes pins had declined the most in
frequency from 13% to 3%. The winner was tongs from 10% all the way up to
20%. Below you will see a graph showing all others results.

Small
hair
clip
Tongs
Chip
clips
Large
hair
clips
Binder
clips
Tweez
ers
Clothe
s pins
Chops
ticks

Begi
n
0

Fre
q
0%

1 Fre
q
5 0%

2 Fre
q
1 3%

3 Fre
q
1 3%

4 Fre
q
1 3%

5 Fre
q
1 3%

Differe
nce
+3%

10
%
17
%
17
%

5 17
%
5 17
%
5 17
%

23
%
17
%
17
%

20
%
20
%
17
%

7 23
%
5 17
%
5 17
%

20
%
20
%
17
%

+10%

10
%
17
%
13
%
17
%

2 7%

7%

3%

1 3%

3%

-7%

6 20
%
2 7%

20
%
3%

20
%
3%

6 20
%
1 3%

20
%
3%

+3%

5 17
%

10
%

13
%

4 13
%

13
%

-4%

5
5

3
5
4
5

5
5

6
5

6
5

+3%
0%

-10%

Number of each tool over time

Tongs

Chip Clips

Large HairClip

Binder Clip

Tweezers

Cloths Pins

Chopsticks

Small Hair Clip

Conclusion

My hypothesis turned out to be wrong in the end. Large hair clips were
able to hold their own without expanding at all. If you look at the data it
remained constant through all 5 rounds. Not only that, but tweezers did not
excel at the rate I had originally expected. They had only grown by 1 or 3%
in frequency.
A factor that would have hindered the experiment would have been the
fact that some people were running out of seeds while in other cases they
would not be. Another was the fact that we were all familiar using some tools
and not others. So they spread of tools at random to a different set of
students would likely have different results. Replication of this experiment
with the same results would prove very difficult. The process to narrow down
which tool is better works well. But there are too many outside variables
creating many possibilities to replicate this experiment with the same results
consistently.
Discussion
When following the scientific method you will always start with a
question. The next step would be to research about that question to better
understand the topic. Then you would construct an educated hypothesis
after your research. After you have your hypothesis of what may happen, you
will test it in a controlled experiment while collecting data. You will then
analyze the data to see whether your hypothesis to your question was
correct. If It was correct, you will report your results. If your hypothesis was
wrong, you will rethink your strategy and learn from the results to form
another hypothesis to test and analyze until you find a correct hypothesis or
answer to your question.
Other fields that use the scientific method would be engineering and
programming. When I program and something doesnt work correctly, I use
the scientific method to find it. I ask myself, why this code is not working. I
look into the code and research it to form a hypothesis to why it will not
function correctly. I then create a controlled test in order to test my
hypothesis followed by checking my results to see if it worked. If it worked, I
move on to another part. If it did not work, I rethink why it didnt work and
start back over with a hypothesis as to why it wont work.
This activity demonstrated our use of the scientific method by
following each step in order. We were given our question, which was, which
tool will be best for picking up seeds. We already knew about each tool from
using them, so that would be our research. We then each made a guess as to
which tool would become dominant based on our knowledge of the tools.
After that we did 5 rounds of collecting seeds while recording data as our
experiment. After we had our data, we analyzed it and calculated the

frequency of each tool. Now my hypothesis was wrong and in the scientific
process you would create a new hypothesis and go from there. But in this
case, we are reporting the results.
The theory of evolution is that organisms with more favorable traits for
their environment will have an easier time surviving. In turn, they will survive
over those with less favorable traits that have a harder time surviving. These
traits are changed by mutations and if favorable, they will have greater odds
of surviving and carrying on that trait to offspring.
This activity supported the theory of evolution in every aspect. We
created our environment by putting seeds on the desk. Then to signify
different traits, we each as humans, were given a different tool to pick up the
seeds in our environment. Much like how the Finches had their environment
with seeds, then would have various different kinds of beaks. Those of us
with tools that were less favorable and harder to pick up seeds were able to
collect less than those with the most favorable tools. So those with less
favorable tools lost them signifying the end of that trait or blood line. Then to
signify the reproduction of those with more favorable tools, each made a
copy of themselves to carry on the species.
References
National Geography News
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060714-evolution_2.html
Creation.com
http://creation.com/darwins-finches