1. AP Bio Investigation 1: Artificial Selection Lab

2. Artificial Selection Lab
Question: Can extreme selection change expression of a quantitative trait in a population in one generation?
Organism: Wisconsin Fast Plants
Plant Care:
Check water levels every day.
Be gentle when handling these plants. Try not to touch them, if possible.

3. Objectives
Investigate natural selection as a major mechanism of evolution
Apply mathematical methods to data from a real population to predict what will happen to the population in the future
Investigate how natural selection acts on phenotypic variations in a population

5. Observations
Identify and list traits that vary between individual Wisconsin Fast Plants.

6. Trait: Trichomes

7. Trait: Trichomes Greek meaning “hair”
Fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, and lichens
Functions:
interfere with the feeding of small herbivores
keeps frost away from living cells
break up airflow across plant surfaces
reflect sunlight in hot, dry, open habitats

8. Generation 1 – Your Data
Individual Plant #
# of Trichomes

9. Generation 1 – Class Data
# Trichomes
# of Plants

10. Generation 1 Data Record the data on the class plant population
Make a histogram (bar graphs) of the data
Title: Trichome Distribution of Generation 1
Label x- & y- axis: # Trichomes vs. # Plants
Calculate:
Sample Size (n)
Mean ()
Median (Md)
Range (r)
Standard Deviation (s)