Elektra Taylor and Daisy Hart

ECUR 326
ALG
Curriculum guide outcomes and indicators this activity fulfills
 Outcome: BI30-LE2
Examine the significance of evolution as a key unifying theme in biology through the principles,
processes and patterns of biological evolution. [SI, DM]
- Identify common misconceptions (e.g., individuals evolve, natural selection is evolution, evolution
is random and evolution is a theory) regarding biological evolution. (K)
- Outline the key principles (e.g., descent with modification, fitness as a result of adaptations and
struggle for existence) and processes (e.g., natural selection, genetic drift and selective breeding) of
biological evolution. (K, STSE, A)
- Recognize how the principles of natural selection occur at the level of the individual and may
result in the evolution of the population. (K)
- Examine how particular selective pressures (e.g., competition, predation, changes in climate,
parasitism and pollution) acting on an individual can influence a population over time. (K, S)
- Explain how geographic, temporal and behavioural isolation can influence speciation. (K)
- Identify concepts (e.g., gradualism versus punctuated equilibrium, convergent evolution, divergent
evolution, coevolution, adaptive radiation, mass-extinction and the evolutionary arms race) that are
only evident when examining evolution over a multitude of generations extending to geological
time. (K)

Materials
 Two peanuts in shells (per person per group)
 Table or desk
 One cup (per group)
 15 plastic knives
 Stop watch
 Large roll of duct tape or masking tape
 Blind fold
 Paper bag containing the letters A through F on slips of paper
Procedure
1) Students form into 7 different groups. Each student will simulate an animal that can only
digest peanuts as its food source.
2) They will each get a random mutation by selecting a letter from the paper bag the teacher
has provided.
3) Each group will begin at the specified location, the goals are to:
a) Gather the food (two peanuts per person in the group)
b) Store the food for later use (place the peanuts in their letter-designated container).
c) Retrieve the food at a later time (remove the peanuts from the container and return
with the peanuts to the home location).
d) Process and consume the food (remove the peanuts from the shells and consume these
peanuts).
e) Each group will continue until the peanuts have been consumed and time has been
recorded.
f) If there was more time we would write the times required for each group to complete
the process on the board (a bar graph can be made).
 Letter drawn by Characteristic produced by mutation
groups

A Long fingernails (produced by plastic knives taped

to fingers with tape)

B No fingers (produced by taping each hand closed)

C Feet and ankles fused together (produced by taping

the ankles tightly together with tape)

D No arms (produced y taping the arms down to the

side of the body with tape)

E Arms fused together behind the back at the wrists

(produced by placing arms behind the back and
taping tightly at the wrists)

F Blind (by covering eyes with blindfold)

To begin the activity, each group should position itself at its specified home location. We will start
the stop watch and each group will begin with food gathering. Group members should proceed to
the blanket containing the peanuts and gather three peanuts per person in their group. These
peanuts should then be transported to a container. The group members should return to their
home location. At this point, the group will proceed back to the plastic container to retrieve its
food. Once the group has removed all the peanuts, it will return to the home location. The group
will open the peanut shells and remove the contents. Each group member will consume the
contents of three of the peanut shells at the completion of this process, the amount of time
required to achieve this will be recorded.
Safety Considerations
- no running or fowl play
- allergy alert
Correct and detailed explanations of the “science”
* stated in powerpoint demonstration *
Relevance to real-world of students
This activity engages students in the learning material and will help them to understand and
observe mutations, recognize and adapt to them, and observe how the mutations effect survival
skills. This activity also gives an opportunity for students to understand the struggles that occur in
the daily lives of populations that have mutations.
Decisions when designing the activity
One of the biggest things we had to decide when planning this activity was what learning outcomes
we were going to hit. For each Saskatchewan curriculum learning outcome we discussed whether or
not we could incorporate it into our game; many of them we could intergrade, but some we could
not. For each outcome we then had to discuss questions and topics that may arise from the
students. From here we created discussion points and key ideas that we wanted to address and
made an interactive power-point that we would go over with the class.
We discussed whether it would be best to do this activity at the beginning or end of the unit and
came to the conclusion that it could go either way. We think it would be better as a wrap up activity
after the unit was finished so that questions could be asked after as an evaluation of how much the
students had learned. Although, the same argument could be made by doing it at the beginning.
Similar questions could be asked and that would help give the students an idea of what they are
going to be learning about and what they will be required to know.
A few more minor decisions we had to make were on what mutations we would be giving each
group. We chose the ones we did because they were fun, safe, and represent some extremes of
real life mutations. We also, of course, had to consider the safety within our environment and with
the materials used.
References
Moy, P. (n.d.). Monstrous Mutations. Retrieved from http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/cb1298.htm