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Week 10 - Natural Selection

What did you learn this week?

This week we learned more about evolution specifically talking about the driving factors of evolution. We talked about how evolution is the process by which species change over time with favorable traits. We learned about the drivers for evolution are natural selection, gene drift, migration, and mutation.  

Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? 

This week's activity reminded me of the bunny simulation that we got to play around with in the lecture last Thursday. In the bunny simulation, we could mess with the amount of food available, the offspring produced, and the predators around to see the population of the bunnies change. 


How can you apply what you learned in your teaching in the future?

I really enjoyed this week's lab as it was a hands-on learning activity called "Preying on Beans" which was a really interactive way to help students learn about the process of adaptation and selection. Similar to the simulations we were able to try last week, it was an extra activity to use to help students grasp the concept and see these processes unfold right before their eyes. 

Our group's hypothesis we made after our simulation were: 

1) Predators that had traits that made them more fit to survive, reproduced to make the traits more common. 

2) Predators with more favorable traits, are likely to consume more matter and energy due to that adapted ability. 

Comments

  1. Megan MisseyOctober 31, 2024 at 7:38 AM

    I also enjoyed this week's lab activity, and agree that these hands on experiments can get students engaged and thinking about how they can apply these concepts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex McDonoughOctober 31, 2024 at 2:30 PM

    Maddy, I also felt the bean lab was similar to the bunny simulation, it was cool to get to have a hands-on activity for it.Great Job!

    ReplyDelete

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