Woolyboogers & Natural Selection

Background on the Woolybooger… On a distant planet there exists 5 species of a creature called a Woolybooger. Each Woolybooger is similar except their mouth has variations. All woolyboogers eat beans.

Overview Students will model natural selection by using various utensils to "capture food" These utensils will simulate the different mouths of the Woolybooger species.

What you do… Each of you will play the part of a woolybooger on this planet. The spoon-mouth wooly booger is rare, so only two of you will get to be this type of wooly booger.

Procedure… You will run through several trials. Each trial will require your woolybooger to gain at least 20 beans. If 20 beans are not acquired during the time period, your woolybooger has died. When a woolybooger dies, you can then play the offspring of the surviving woolyboogers.

Trials 1, 2, 3… What species of woolyboogers were left? Explain your reasoning following the steps of natural selection….

Stages of Natural Selection… Genetic Variation: There is variation in traits (Woolyboogers have different shaped mouths for eating)

Stages of Natural Selection… 2. Differential Reproduction: Since the environment cannot support unlimited population growth, which woolyboogers tend to die off? The ones that have more difficulty acquiring food.

Stages of Natural Selection… 3. There is Heredity: The surviving woolyboogers reproduce and have woolybooger babies that feed the same way that they do because the trait has a genetic basis.

Stages of Natural Selection… End Result: The more advantageous trait, spoon feeders, which allows the woolyboogers to have more offspring, becomes more common in the population. If the process continues all members of the population will have spoon mouths. (The woolyboogers with the spoon mouths had greater fitness than the others!!)

Something to think about….. If only one species is considered the "fittest", why do we still have so many variations among species. Why do some birds have very long pointy beaks, while other birds have short flat beaks?

Evolution 101 Resource!! http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/index.shtml