The English Peppered Moth and Natural Selection Lab
By: Justin Pascual
Partners: Nathan Magbitang, Rudy Keyes-Krysakowski, and Glenn Tipold
Teacher: Ms. Coopman
Date Performed: November 16, 2015 The English Peppered Moth and Natural Selection Lab
Purpose
The purpose of this lab is to determine how variation in a population can favour survival of a certain trait over multiple generations.
Hypothesis
It is believed that if there are more speckled moths remaining in the tray at the end of the experiment, it will represent the fact that the conditions of the surrounding environment have favoured their colour. This is because they will be better camouflaged on the trees and predators will have more trouble finding them compared to their …show more content…
This can be seen in nature with the moths that were camouflaged with the background and were not eaten or killed off whereas those that could camouflage with the environment would not be killed as easily and could pass their genes on to the next generation (Butterfly Conservation, 2002). In the second experiment, the students were given a green “environment” bin with different sized squares within. It was noted that the smaller squares were still remaining within the bin at the end of the experiment and this is because they were much harder to spot when compared to the size of the other, larger ones. This occurs in the environment when a larger selection of a species is killed off because of its larger size, or because it is hiding the smaller selection of a species beneath it, allowing the smaller selection to survive and pass its genes on to the next generation. The previous data is firmly supported by the data that the students acquired by performing the experiment. It was found that, compared to the normal distribution, that almost all of the white and lightly speckled moths were spotted and removed from the environment in the moths experiment. Specifically, all the white moths were naturally selected as well as majority …show more content…
This means that the moths were different colours and they could not hide as well as those that were able to blend in with the surrounding environment. A positive variation is one that benefits the organism with their survival and an example of this is a fish that is changing colour so that it can blend in with the sandy bottom of the ocean (Dunlop, 2010). A neutral variation is one that neither benefits nor provides a disadvantage to the organism and an example of this is a cat that has different coloured fur than their siblings and parents (Dunlop, 2010). This variation does not harm the species and does not benefit it either (Dunlop, 2010). A negative variation is one that presents itself as a disadvantage to the organism and an example of this is a moose that is born with fragile antlers (Dunlop, 2010). This means that the moose will not be able to defend itself as well and cannot fight for a mate (Dunlop, 2010). In the experiment, the students concluded that having a lighter colour made them more susceptible to be eaten by predators as demonstrated when the students picked out the lighter coloured moths. The frequency of the square 5 which measured 1 inch by 1 inch was 33% (refer to Appendix under Calculations) and this shows that the amount of squares picked out of a certain size decreases as the size of the square decreases. The group data compared to the data collected
By: Justin Pascual
Partners: Nathan Magbitang, Rudy Keyes-Krysakowski, and Glenn Tipold
Teacher: Ms. Coopman
Date Performed: November 16, 2015 The English Peppered Moth and Natural Selection Lab
Purpose
The purpose of this lab is to determine how variation in a population can favour survival of a certain trait over multiple generations.
Hypothesis
It is believed that if there are more speckled moths remaining in the tray at the end of the experiment, it will represent the fact that the conditions of the surrounding environment have favoured their colour. This is because they will be better camouflaged on the trees and predators will have more trouble finding them compared to their …show more content…
This can be seen in nature with the moths that were camouflaged with the background and were not eaten or killed off whereas those that could camouflage with the environment would not be killed as easily and could pass their genes on to the next generation (Butterfly Conservation, 2002). In the second experiment, the students were given a green “environment” bin with different sized squares within. It was noted that the smaller squares were still remaining within the bin at the end of the experiment and this is because they were much harder to spot when compared to the size of the other, larger ones. This occurs in the environment when a larger selection of a species is killed off because of its larger size, or because it is hiding the smaller selection of a species beneath it, allowing the smaller selection to survive and pass its genes on to the next generation. The previous data is firmly supported by the data that the students acquired by performing the experiment. It was found that, compared to the normal distribution, that almost all of the white and lightly speckled moths were spotted and removed from the environment in the moths experiment. Specifically, all the white moths were naturally selected as well as majority …show more content…
This means that the moths were different colours and they could not hide as well as those that were able to blend in with the surrounding environment. A positive variation is one that benefits the organism with their survival and an example of this is a fish that is changing colour so that it can blend in with the sandy bottom of the ocean (Dunlop, 2010). A neutral variation is one that neither benefits nor provides a disadvantage to the organism and an example of this is a cat that has different coloured fur than their siblings and parents (Dunlop, 2010). This variation does not harm the species and does not benefit it either (Dunlop, 2010). A negative variation is one that presents itself as a disadvantage to the organism and an example of this is a moose that is born with fragile antlers (Dunlop, 2010). This means that the moose will not be able to defend itself as well and cannot fight for a mate (Dunlop, 2010). In the experiment, the students concluded that having a lighter colour made them more susceptible to be eaten by predators as demonstrated when the students picked out the lighter coloured moths. The frequency of the square 5 which measured 1 inch by 1 inch was 33% (refer to Appendix under Calculations) and this shows that the amount of squares picked out of a certain size decreases as the size of the square decreases. The group data compared to the data collected