Evolution WebQuest

Part A: Play Darwin’s Evolution Game: http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/darwin/darwin.html. Answer the questions as you work through the site.

1.  What are the three basic “parts” to evolution?

2.  What does “survival of the fittest” mean?

3.  How would you describe your starting environment? What kinds of landforms are present? What kind of vegetation is there? Anything else that is noteworthy?

4.  Draw your 3 starting variants of your species and describe why you chose the ones that you did in the table below. What advantages did you think they might have over some of the other options?

Trial #1

Picture of variant / Reason for choice
1.
2.
3.

How long did your species survive? ______

4. Repeat the above until you make it to 1,000,000 years!! Use this space, the back of this sheet, or a blank sheet of paper to record your variants and reasons. Label them “Trial #2”, “Trial #3”, etc.

5. Once your species has succeeded, take the quiz on the site and write in the letter to the correct responses below:

1. ____

2. ____

3. ____

4. ____

5. ____

6. ____

7. ____

8. ____

9. ____

10. ____

11. What was the name of the guy pictured on the right page?

______

Part B: Play the evolution game here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/evolution/what-is-evolution/natural-selection-game/the-evolution-experience.html

Answer the following:

1.  Which insect is easier for you to eat and why?

2.  Over time what happens to the number of blue insects in the population as opposed to green insects?

3.  If you eat all of the blue insects and their are no more left to pass on the blue gene, what has happened to that gene?

4.  If you and your species require the blue bug to eat, and it is now extinct, what most likely will happen to your species?

Part C: Investigate a variety of types of evidence for evolution. Anatomists study the structure of organisms, physiologists study the function of organisms, molecular biologists study genetics, and paleontologists study fossils.

·  Find a few specific examples of evidence for evolution.

·  Why is this information significant for understanding organisms on Earth and evolution?

1.  Paleontology (Fossils) http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6024&page=11

2.  Homology and analogy: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/similarity_ms_01

3.  Similarities of embryos: http://necsi.edu/projects/evolution/evidence/embryos/evidence_embryo.html

4.  Speciation: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_40

a.  What is speciation?

b.  What are the 3 causes of speciation?

c.  What is the evidence given for speciation?

5.  Evidence of common ancestry: http://bioweb.cs.earlham.edu/9-12/evolution/HTML/live.html

a.  Homologous structures

b.  Vestigial organs

c.  Biochemistry

6.  Give examples of the patterns of evolution: http://bioweb.cs.earlham.edu/9-12/evolution/HTML/converge.html

a.  Divergent

b.  Convergent

c.  Coevolution

7.  How does evolution affect your daily life?: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/evolution-your-life.html