Name: Lelu Woodring Date:
Student Exploration: Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: artificial selection, breed, chromosome, evolution, fitness, genotype, mutation, natural selection,
phenotype
[Note to teachers and students: This Gizmo was designed as a follow-up to the Evolution: Mutation and
Selection Gizmo. We recommend doing that activity before trying this one.]
Prior Knowledge Question (Do this BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
This illustration from an old textbook shows some of the over 150 different dog breeds that can be seen
around the world today. How do you think all of these different breeds were developed?
Most likely, it is man-made, or two different kinds of dogs breed with each other.
Gizmo Warm-up
Dog breeds and other varieties of domesticated animals were
developed through artificial selection. Over many generations,
breeders selected which animals to mate in order to select for
desired traits. The Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection Gizmo
allows you to try your hand at breeding insects with a variety of
colors. To begin, select the Artificial selection option.
1. Drag the 10 insects into the breeding alcoves on the left side of the Gizmo.
A. How many breeding pairs are There are five breeding pairs.
there?
B. How many offspring are produced? Four offspring are produced per pair
2. Circled insects have mutations, or changes to their DNA. How many of the offspring insects in this
generation have mutations? Only two of the insects have genetic mutations.
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Activity A:
Get the Gizmo ready:
Genotype and ● Select Natural selection.
phenotype
Question: How are genes inherited and modified over many generations?
1. Observe: The fitness of an insect is a measure of how well it is adapted to its environment.
A. What is the initial Average fitness of these insects? The average fitness is 50%
B. Click Play ( ), and observe the simulation for several generations. What occurs in each
generation?
The fitness of the insects went down, but the genetic mutation only seemed to happen
1-3 times in a generation.
C. Increase the Sim. speed by one level. Click Pause ( ) after 30 generations. What is the Average
fitness now? The average fitness is 82%
2. Analyze: Set the Sim. speed to its slowest level. Click Play, and then Pause when the offspring appear.
Choose a pair of parents in which both parents have a different color.
A. Move your cursor over a parent insect. The genes that control color make up an insect’s genotype,
while its actual color is its phenotype. Fill in the genotypes and phenotypes of each parent below.
Parent 1 Parent 1 Parent 2 Parent 2
genotype phenotype genotype phenotype
Red= 213 Red= 255
Green= 255 Green= 255
Blue = 255 Blue = 255
Now list the genotypes of each of the four offspring below.
Offspring 1 Offspring 2 Offspring 3 Offspring 4
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3. Explain: Each rod-shaped structure is a chromosome. Real chromosomes contain hundreds or even
thousands of genes. The simplified chromosomes shown in this Gizmo only contain genes that determine
the insects’ colors.
How are the chromosomes of the offspring related to the chromosomes of the parents?
The parents contain certain chromosomes if one parent's genes are more potent than another,
for example, melanin. If a parent has melanin and one parent doesn’t, the offspring is more
likely to have melanin in their skin.
4. Investigate: Any insect that has a mutation will be circled. Place your cursor on an insect with a mutation to
examine its genotype. (If there are none in this generation, click Play and then Pause when a mutation
appears.)
A. Examine the genotype of the mutated insect as well as the genotypes of its parents to determine
what the mutation is. What new gene appeared? “c” appeared and is most likely from
the father, who is a mutant.
B. Do you think this mutation is helpful, harmful, or neutral for the insect? Explain.
Depending on the type of mutation and where they live, this could affect whether the
mutation is helpful or harmful, so the answer is neutral.
C. Click Play, and then click Pause after the birds have finished eating. Did the mutated insect
survive?
Both of the mutated insects were eaten by the bird.
5. Observe: Increase the Sim. speed by two levels. Click Play, and wait for a while. (Note: At faster
simulation speeds, only the surviving offspring are shown.) What do you notice?
Before there was only one color of mutation which was light blue, now there are many different
colors including black, red, and green. Some generations have a whole family of just green
insects.
6. Explain: In wild populations, evolution is often caused by natural selection. Based on what you have
observed, how does natural selection occur?
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It can occur from inheritance from parents or grandparents when the insect was alive
(meaning that they might have had different living conditions than others) and adaptation to
the era of time.
Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity B:
● Select Artificial selection.
Artificial selection ● Set the Mutation rate to 2.0.
Question: How can a species be changed through artificial selection?
1. Set a goal: In this activity, your goal is to develop insects that are any color you would like.
What color do you want your insects to be? Blue and red
2. Make a plan: Follow the directions in the Gizmo to produce five generations of insects.
A. How would you describe the process of artificial selection?
You choose a species, then force them to breed to get an artificial version of the animal
to your liking.
B. How will mutations be useful in achieving your goal color?
Mutations often cause a change in body parts and skin(shell) color.
C. What strategy will you use to produce insects of your desired color?
You can breed certain types of insects until you get the desired color.
📷
3. Run Gizmo: Use the Gizmo to produce insects that match your goal color. (This will take patience!) When
you are satisfied, click the camera ( ) to take a screenshot. Right-click the image and choose Copy
Image, and then paste the image below.
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How many generations did it take for you to develop your insects? Only 3 generations
4. Compare: If possible, compare your insects to the insects developed by your classmates. What different
colors of insects can be developed using artificial selection?
5. Explain: One of the tallest dog breeds is the Great Dane, which stands over a meter tall. One of the
shortest is the Pomeranian, which stands about 20 centimeters tall. Based on what you have learned about
artificial selection, how were these two breeds developed?
Most likely by selective breeding and natural selection. These dog breeds were created by
people taking their favorite traits from different types of dogs and combining them to make the
dog of their desire.
6. Collect data: Use the Red, Green, and Blue sliders to match the Background color as closely as possible
to phenotype of the insects. Select Natural selection.
Click Play, and then click Pause when the Average fitness first exceeds 90%. Record the number of
generations in the table below, and then repeat for a total of five trials.
Trial 1 2 3 4 5 Mean
Number of generations
to achieve 90% fitness
7. Calculate: Add up the number of generations and divide by five to find the mean number of generations
required to reach at least 90% fitness. Fill in the last column of the table.
8. Analyze: Which process tends to occur more quickly, natural selection or artificial selection? Why do you
think this is so?
Natural selection is important because the animals do it on their own; with artificial, we have to
find the insect we want with specific traits and then breed them.
9. Summarize: How are the processes of natural selection and artificial selection similar? How are they
different? If possible, discuss your answer with your classmates and teacher.
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Artificial selection is desire from humans to have the animal of their desire. Natural selection is
emotion from the animal themselves.
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Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity C:
● Click Reset ( ). Be sure Natural selection is
Mutation rates selected.
● Set Red to 100, Green to 255, and Blue to 50.
Question: How does the mutation rate affect a population’s ability to adapt to its environment?
1. Gather data: Change the Mutation rate to 0.1 and the Sim. speed slider to its lowest setting. Click Play,
and then click Pause when the offspring appear. Record the number of mutations (circled offspring), and
then repeat for two more trials. Do this for each mutation rate listed in the table, then calculate the mean
number of mutations for each mutation rate.
Mutation rate Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Mean
0.1
1.0
10.0
How does the mutation rate relate to the number of mutations in each generation?
2. Form hypothesis: How do you expect the rate of mutations to affect the ability of the bug population to
adapt to its environment?
3. Gather data: Click Reset. Set the Mutation rate to 0.1, and move the Sim. speed slider to a faster setting.
Click Play, and then click Pause when the Average fitness is 90% or greater. Record the number of
generations required to reach 90% fitness in the table below.
Number of generations to 90% average fitness
Mutation rate Mean
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
0.1
0.3
0.5
1.0
3.0
5.0
10.0
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4. Analyze: How does the mutation rate affect the speed at which a population adapts to its environment?
5. Think and discuss: You may have noticed that above a certain mutation rate the time required for a
population to adapt to its background may increase. Why do you think this is so? If possible, discuss your
answer with your classmates and teacher.
6. Apply: Scientists doing artificial breeding experiments often use radiation or other methods to increase the
mutation rate. Why is a high mutation rate useful?
7. Investigate: Use the Gizmo to develop a population of insects that are well adapted to their environment.
(Average fitness is above 90%.) Change the Mutation rate to 0.1, and run the simulation. Then, observe
the population with a Mutation rate of 10.0.
A. What do you notice?
B. If a population is already well-adapted to its environment, will most mutations be helpful or harmful?
Explain.
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