Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________
Student Exploration: Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Vocabulary: adaptation, allele, allele sequence, chromosome, evolution, fitness, gene,
genotype, mutation, natural selection, phenotype, trait
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. Imagine a white lizard and a brown lizard sitting on a brown rock. A hawk is circling
overhead hunting for its next meal. Which lizard do you think the hawk would most likely try
to catch? Explain your choice.
The white lizard because it is more noticeable and sticks out more.
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2. Now imagine that the same two lizards were sitting on a dune of white sand. Which lizard do
you think the hawk would then most likely try to catch? Why?
The brown lizard because it doesn’t blend in with the white sand.
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Gizmo Warm-up
How long could a parrot survive in Antarctica? It would
probably not survive long. Parrots do not have
adaptations—or helpful characteristics—to survive
icy cold weather. Because of this, a parrot is not fit for
Antarctica. Fitness describes how well an organism
can survive and reproduce in an environment.
In the Evolution: Mutation and Selection Gizmo, you
will see how a species’ fitness can change over time
as it becomes better adapted to its environment.
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1. On the SIMULATION pane, what is the Average fitness of the population? _____________
2. On the CONTROLS pane, experiment with the Background color sliders.
A. Which background color results in the highest fitness? green
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blue
B. Which background color results in the lowest fitness? ________________________
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Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:
Inherited variation • Set Red to 100, Green to 255, and Blue to 50.
Introduction: An organism’s traits, or characteristics, are controlled by genes. Genes are
located on rod-like structures called chromosomes. Different versions of genes that code for
the same trait are called alleles. In this Gizmo, there are 3 genes on each chromosome. For
each gene there are eight possible alleles: W (white), R (red), G (green), B (blue), C (cyan), M
(magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black).
Question: Where does variation in a population come from?
1. Observe: Hold your cursor over one of the insects. The two rod-like structures under
Genotype on the right side of the Gizmo represent chromosomes. The three letters next to
each chromosome represent alleles.
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Which alleles does the insect have? ____________________________________________
The alleles carried on an organism’s chromosomes make up the organism’s genotype.
2. Observe: An organism’s alleles combine to produce a trait. The physical expression of that
trait is a phenotype. In the Gizmo, phenotype is expressed in red, green, and blue values.
A. What is the phenotype of the insect? 255
Red: _____ 255
Green: _____ 255
Blue: _____
white
B. What color is the insect? __________________
3. Run Gizmo: Move the Sim. speed slider all the way to the left. Click Play ( ). You will see
the insects move to the left in pairs. The pairs mate and produce a set of four offspring. As
soon as you see at least one offspring with an oval around it, click Pause ( ). Move your
cursor over the circled offspring.
Genotype- YW, WW, WW Phenotype- red: 255, green: 255, blue: 213
A. What is its genotype and phenotype? _____________________________________
B. How does its genotype and phenotype differ from the non-circled offspring?
The non-circled offspring are all white.
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4. Explain: The change in the circled offspring’s genotype was caused by a mutation. A
mutation is a change in a gene. Mutations happen when a mistake is made when a cell’s
chromosomes are copied. How might mutations introduce variation into a population?
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When the mutation occurs it then produces offspring that will continue to give the off springs the new gene and create variation into a
population.
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(Activity A continued on next page)
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Activity A (continued from previous page)
5. Collect data: Move the Mutation rate slider to 3.0, and click Play. Allow the Gizmo to run for
another 10–15 generations. (You can see the generation number below the insects.)
Click Pause when the parents are ready to have offspring. Find a set of two parents that has
four different chromosomes. (If you can’t find any, allow the Gizmo to run a few more
generations and try again.) Write the allele sequences for these parents in the table below.
Note the labels for each of these chromosomes: A1, A2, B1, and B2.
Organism: Parent A Parent B
Allele sequence of chromosome 1: Y, B, W, W (A1) Y, W, W (B1)
Allele sequence of chromosome 2: W, G, W, WY (A2) Y, Y, W (B2)
Click Play, and then click Pause immediately after the offspring are produced. Write the
allele sequences of chromosomes 1 and 2 for each of the offspring of your selected parents.
Allele sequence of chromosome
Offspring Allele sequence of chromosome 2
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Offspring 1 W, W, W(A1 ) ( ) W, C, R(A2 ) ( )
Offspring 2 W, W, W(B1 ) ( ) W, Y, W(B2 ) ( )
Offspring 3 Y, W, W( A1) ( ) W, Y, W(A2 ) ( )
Offspring 4 W, W, B(B1 ) ( ) W, Y, W( B2) ( )
Label the offspring chromosomes A1, A2, B1, or B2. Circle any mutated chromosomes.
6. Analyze: Study the completed table.
A. Look at the inheritance patterns. What do you notice? ________________________
Offsprings have a combination from each parent
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B. Can a single offspring inherit both chromosomes from one parent? ______________
It is not common just because you are receiving the dna from two parents
Explain: ____________________________________________________________
no
C. Did any mutations occur in this set of offspring? _____________________________
Gene flow which is the movement of genes between different groups of organisms.
If so, which chromosome mutated? _______________________________________
7. Challenge yourself: You have already learned that mutation is one source of variation in a
population. Based on what you have just seen, what is a second source of variation?
It is not common just because you are receiving the dna from two parents
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Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity B:
• Click Reset ( ).
Survival of the
• Set Red to 255, Green to 0, and Blue to 130.
fittest
• Set the Mutation rate to 1.0.
Question: Are some organisms more likely to survive and reproduce than others?
1. Count: Move the Sim. speed slider all the way to the left. Click Play.
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A. After the parents mate, click Pause. How many offspring are there? _____________
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B. Click Play. After the birds eat, click Pause. How many offspring are left? _________
In nature, as in the Gizmo, more offspring are born than can survive long enough to
reproduce. Because of this, the offspring must compete with one another for survival. In this
Gizmo, the insect offspring compete to avoid being eaten by birds.
2. Observe: Move the Sim. speed slider one notch to the right. Click Play, and wait for about
20 generations to pass. You should see a variety of insect phenotypes. (If not, click Play
and wait until you do.)
Red, orange, and purple
A. What different colors of insects do you see? ________________________________
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B. How do you think this variation might affect the competition between the offspring?
Insects with different variations need different things therefore the environment will be suited for certain insects.
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3. Analyze: Scroll over the insects and note their fitness (shown under the Phenotype). The
fitness of an organism reflects how likely it is to survive and produce offspring. Each insect is
given a percentage that reflects its chances of surviving to reproduce.
Compare the fitness percentages to the insect colors. How does fitness relate to the color of
Insects that have similar chromosomes as their parents have a higher fitness percentage.
the insects? _______________________________________________________________
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4. Predict: How do you think an insect’s fitness will affect is chances of being eaten by birds?
If it is higher then the chances of it being eaten by birds are lower.
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(Activity B continued on next page)
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Activity B (continued from previous page)
5. Collect data: In nature, chance alone can affect whether an individual survives. However,
general trends in survival rates can be seen by studying a larger group of individuals.
Move the Sim. speed slider all the way to the left. Click Play, and then click Pause when all
the offspring are visible. Write the generation number and the average fitness of all the
offspring in the first two spaces of the table below.
Next, click Play, and then click Pause immediately after the birds have fed and the 10
survivors are visible. Mouse over each survivor and record its fitness. Find the average
fitness of the survivors by adding these values and dividing by 10.
Repeat this experiment two more times, recording your results in the table.
Generation Ave. fitness Survivor fitness values Ave. survivor fitness
6. Recognize trends: Study the table above. What trends do you see? ___________________
The older the generation the higher the survivor fitness is.
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7. Analyze: In most situations, were the fittest insects or the least fit insects most likely to
survive? Explain how the data from your experiment supports your answer.
The fittest were most likely to survive because each generation the average increased.
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8. Think and discuss: The principle of natural selection states that the best adapted
organisms are most likely to survive and reproduce. Was this demonstrated in your
experiment? Explain.
Yes, it was demonstrated because the survivors reproduced and this caused the average to go up.
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Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity C:
• Click Reset. Set Red to 100, Green to 255, and
Evolution
Blue to 50.
Introduction: You learned in activity B that fit individuals have a better chance of surviving and
reproducing than individuals that are less fit. In this activity, you will observe how natural
selection affects a population over time.
Question: How does a population change over time?
1. Experiment: Set the Background color to the values shown in the last column of the table
below. Record the Average fitness of generation 1 in the second column of the table. Move
your cursor over the insects and find the individual with the greatest fitness. (In the first
generation, all the insects will have the same fitness). Record that individual’s phenotype in
the table’s third column.
Move the Sim. speed slider a quarter of the way to the right. Run the Gizmo, clicking Pause
about every 25 generations, and complete the table for each listed generation. (Note: At
higher simulation speeds, only the surviving bugs in each generation are shown.)
Generation Average Fitness of Fittest Phenotype of Fittest Background
number Fitness Individual Individual (R, G, B) color
1
25
50
red = 100
75
green = 255
100
blue = 50
150
200
300
2. Describe: Examine the data collected for trends.
A. How did the phenotype of the fittest individual change over time? _____________
There was no significant change.
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B. How did the population’s fitness change over time? __________________________
There was little change because most of the population had the same survivor fitness.
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The process by which populations change over time is known as evolution. This Gizmo
only demonstrates how one trait—body color—can evolve.
(Activity C continued on next page)
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Activity C (continued from previous page)
3. Predict: Based on what you have just seen, how do you think the population will evolve if
you made the Background color purple?
The average survivor fitness will increase.
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4. Test: Set Red to 120, Green to 0, and Blue to 160 to make a purple background. Click
Play. After 300 more generations have passed, click Pause.
Was your prediction correct? Explain. ___________________________________________
Yes, it was correct because the average increased over time.
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5. Make connections: Why do you think it is necessary for there to be variation in a population
in order for evolution by natural selection to occur?
So there are a variety of different bugs.
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6. Make connections: Why is it necessary for traits to be inherited for evolution to take place?
So the different types of bugs receive the traits from their parents to change over time.
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7. Apply: Look carefully at the picture below and you will see an insect called a katydid.
Katydids evolved from grasshoppers through natural selection. Use what you have learned
to explain how this could have happened.
This could have happened because of the environment they live and in order
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to survive they had to adapt camouflage and over time it has gotten better and
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better. It was also continuously passed down from offspring to offspring.
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