Culminating Task Guidelines: Adapt an Animal
For your culminating task, you will start with a population of at least 100 animals from
ONE species. You can choose any animal you like. Describe your animal’s traits.
Describe the type of environment your animal population lives in and how its traits are
adapted to living in its environment. You will then change the animal’s environment and
describe the animal’s EVOLUTION as it adapts to the new environment over many
generations. You will start your “Evolution” in 2003 and decide how much time has
passed to the end of your “Evolution”.
Required elements: Part 1
1) Create 3 physical and 2 behavioral traits for your animal population.
2) Identify 3 environmental factors in the animal’s environment.
3) Create a “Phenotype Frequency” table that describes the diversity of each trait in your
animal population.
4) Graph each trait in a “Frequency Distribution” graph. Are the distributions “normal”
or “skewed”?
5) A 2 paragraph description of the animal population and its niche, and how it uses its
traits to survive in its environment.
Words to use in Part 1 paragraphs: Population, Traits, Environment, Niche, Adaptation,
Frequency.
Required elements: Part 2
1)
Change at least one of the environmental factors from part 1.
2)
Describe how the environmental changes lead to “Natural Selection”.
3)
Use the “Natural Selection” to create a new “Phenotype Frequency” table for the
changes in part 2. These are changes over ONE or TWO generations at most.
4)
Graph each trait in a “Frequency Distribution” graph.
5)
Compare the graphs in part 1 to the new graphs in part 2. Was the “Natural
Selection” you used to change the trait frequencies “Directional”, “Stabilizing”, or
“Disruptive”?
Required elements: Part 3
1) Determine if your “Natural Selection” leads to “Speciation” (Your animal population
changes to a new species).
2) Determine how much Geologic Time has passed since 2003.
3) Describe the evidence that a scientist could find to study the changes in your animal
population and its environment from 2003 to the end of your Evolution.
Conclusion:
Summarize the changes you made to the environment, the “Natural Selection”,
the changes in the animals traits, and the amount of geologic time needed for speciation
in a short two paragraph conclusion.
Words to use in your conclusion: Natural Selection, Microevolution, Macroevolution,
Geologic Time, Speciation.
Designed by Fred Simmons, Fremont Biology Teacher, LAUSD