Jackie Condie

1. Natural Selection Beak Experiment

2. Intro
a) Review and Evaluate
1. The first article I looked at was Evolution of Darwins finches and
their beaks revealed by genome sequencing. This article
reported the results of whole-genome re-sequencing of 120
individuals representing all of the Darwins finch species and two
close relatives. (Lamichhaney, Sangeet, et al. 2016) This article
showed their methods they used and had a discussion/
conclusion. This article also had graphs to show the data they
collected from the birds.
2. The second article I looked at was Is Beak Morphology in
Darwins Finches Tuned to Loading Demands?. This article
studied the correlation between how birds eat their food to their
beak types. They studied this by looking at several different birds
and beak types and if they were base biting or tip biting. They
showed their data with graphs and pictures. They went over their
methods so this experiment could be repeated.
b) My initial hypothesis was: I think tweezers will increase in
frequency over time and hair clips will decrease in frequency over
time. I thought tweezers would be able to pick up the food easier
and that hair clips might have a hard time picking up food and may
break if being used to much.
3. Materials and methods
a) The materials that were used for this experiment were: tweezers,
hairclips, clothes pins, chop sticks, chip clips, binder clips, tongs,
and sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds were used as the food
and the other materials were used as different forms of beaks.
b) In this experiment we started out with a mix of all the different beak
types throughout the class we all had a small cup to put food in and
sunflower seeds scattered in front of us. Then we had one minute to
pick up the sunflower seeds using the beak we had and put them in
our little cup. Once the minute was over the three people that had
the most and the three people that had the least were taken to the
side. The people that had the least had to give up their beak and it
was replaced with one of the top three peoples beak type. For
example, if a tweezer was one of the top three and a chip clip was
one of the bottom three the chip clip would go away and they would
get tweezers so now there was one extra tweezer in the group. We
then repeated this four times for a total of five rounds. In round two
tongs were added to the mix giving one to one of the bottom three
beaks.

4. Results
a) Data table:

Tweezers
Hair Clips
Clothes
Pin
Chop
Sticks
Chip
Clips
Binder
Clips
Tongs

b)

Total

Round Round Round Round Round

Begin 1
2
3
4
5
5
7
8
8
9
10
5
5
5
5
5
5
6

10

6
0

5
0

5
1

4
1

4
2

4
2

34

34

34

34

34

34

Graph:

Beak variatons over time

Total in variation

12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Beak variations
Begin

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

c) The data shows that favorable beak types increased over time and
unfavorable beak types decreased over time. The beak types that
increased are: tweezers, chip clips, and tongs. The beak types that
decreased are: clothes pins, chop sticks, and binder clips. Hair clips
remained the same.
5. Conclusion

a) My hypotheses was supported by tweezers increasing over time. My

hypotheses was rejected because hair clips did not decrease over
time.
b) My hypotheses was supported because tweezers increased from
five to ten over five rounds. My hypotheses was rejected because
hair clips remained the same over five rounds and clothes pins,
chop sticks and binder clips decreased over time.
c) Possible errors that could occur during this experiment are beak
types breaking. During our experiment chip clips broke so people
had to find different ways to use them. It also depends on each
person using the beak type. For example, if someone had chopsticks
and they are very good at using chopsticks and use them often that
would give that beak type a better chance verses people who dont
know how to use chopsticks.
d) Replication of this experiment may have similar results as we did
however, it will most likely vary depending on the group of people
operating the beak types. If the experiment is repeated several
times by different groups and the results remain the same or close
to the same that shows that our results are valid.
6. Discussion
a) The scientific method has 4 steps. They are:
1. Form a hypothesis. Hypothesis is an educated guess that can be
tested and is refutable.
2. Test the hypothesis. Conduct an experiment or observation to
collect data to support or refute the hypotheses.
3. Conclusion. Form a conclusion based of the data collected to
support or refute the hypothesis.
4. Repeat. Repeat the process to make sure your results are
accurate.
The scientific method is used in all different fields of science. It is
also used in many other fields when you have a guess of how
something will work out and test it to get results.
b) This activity demonstrated the scientific method by everyone
forming their own hypothesis, then performing an experiment of
beaks getting food five different rounds to collect sufficient data,
and then everyone made a conclusion based on the data that
supported or refuted their hypothesis.
c) The theory of evolution by natural selection is over time favorable
variations increase in frequency in a population. The underlying
assumptions are: variation, inheritance, competition, and differential
reproductive success. Variation is species having different traits
such as beak types. Inheritance is traits that are inherited from

parents. Competition is when there will be more of a species than

there will be food. Differential reproductive success is the species
with the more favorable traits having more success reproducing off
spring.
d) This activity simulated the theory of evolution by natural selection
by having different beak types showing variation, having only a
limited amount of sunflower seeds on the table to eat showing
competition, and picking out the top three beak types and the
bottom three beak types each round then the bottom three would
get taken out of the population and get replaced by one of the top
three showing that the more favorable beak type had a greater
differential reproductive success. Over time the favorable variation
tweezers increased in frequency in the population.
7. References
Lamichhaney, Sangeet, et al. "Evolution Of Darwin's Finches And Their
Beaks Revealed By Genome Sequencing." Nature 518.7539 (2015):
371-375. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Sept. 2016
Soons, Joris, et al. "Is Beak Morphology In DarwinS Finches Tuned To
Loading Demands?." Plos ONE 10.6 (2015): 1-14. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.