Bird Beak Lab

1
Bird Beak Lab

• Who will survive?

2
Instructions

• Take out one piece of paper and a pencil.
• Clear off your desk.
• Follow directions on the following slides to
  create your lab report.

3
Problem?

• How did the finches on the Galapagos Islands
  different shaped beaks affect their survival?

4
Materials

• Tooth pick
• Chop stick
• Spoon
• Tweezer
• Timer
• Pencil
• Cups

• Plate
• Notebook

5
Procedure

1. Select your beak type.
2. Place plate in center of table.
3. Wait for food.
4. Eat as much as you can in 30 seconds.
5. You may eat only one piece at a time.
6. Place each item you eat in your cup.
7. After time, count how much each bird ate.
8. Record numbers in data table.
9. Repeat for trials 2-4.

6
Create the data table below on your paper.
Record the amount of food eaten by each beak for
trials 1-4.
Beak Type Trial 1 Chick Peas Trial 2 Rice Trial 3 Bugs (raisins) Trial 4 Lentil
Chop Sticks
Spoon
Tweezer
Tooth Pick
7
Hypothesis

• What do you think will happen in each trial?
• Which beak will be successful?
• Use what you know about natural selection
• and survival of the fittest to create your
• prediction.

8
ResultsCreate a bar graph with FOUR columns
showing results for each trial.
Y
Chick peas Rice Bugs Lentils
Amount of Food Eaten
X
Chop Stick Spoon Tweezer
Tooth Pick
Beak Shape
9
ResultsCreate a bar graph with FOUR columns
showing results for each trial.
Y
Chick peas Rice Bugs Lentils
Amount of Food Eaten
X
Chop Stick Spoon Tweezer
Tooth Pick
Beak Shape
10
Conclusions

1. Which beak shape were you?
2. In which trial were you successful?
3. Was your hypothesis supported/rejected?
4. How does this lab illustrate survival of the
   fittest?
5. Based on your results, which beak would survive
   to reproduce on an island with only rice for food?

11
Limitations

• Is there anything that you would change to make
  this lab better if you could repeat it?
• 2. What would you change?