Hyenas Evolution Simulation
GK-12 Fellow : Brandon Jeffrey
GK-12 Teacher: Kate Larson
Date of Lesson: Fall 2011
Grade Level:
7 t h Grade
8 t h Grade
Content Area & Topic:
Agriculture
Chemistr y
Animals
Engineering
Astronom y
Environment
Cells
Genetics
Other: Evolution and Natural Selection
9 t h -12 t h Grade
Health
Physics
Plants
Lesson Overview:
The students will simulate mutations among a populations of hyenas in changing environments.
Length of Lesson:
40-50 minutes
Iow a Core Statement (See Content Map for your grade level on intranet):
Understand and apply knowledge of biological evolution
Content Objectives (SEE Content map for guidelines):
• I can summarize the process of natural selection
• I can summarize evidence for natural selection as the mechanism for evolution
• I can identify the role natural selection plays in the diversity of species
Materials:
One die per student. Data tables (attached).
Lesson Procedures:
Instructions: You are representing a group of hyenas together with your classmates. In your 1st
generation, each of you start with 20 hyenas that are all very similar.
1. Roll your die 6 times.
2. Sum your rolls together.
3. If you scored 25 or higher, you get a mutation. (mutation rate in humans is estimated at 1.1 x 10-8,
which is about 1 in 100 million, which is about the chance in of rolling 9 sixes in a row)
D e ve l o p e d b y : S y m b i , I o w a S t a t e ’ s G K - 1 2 P r o g r a m wi t h t h e N a t i o n a l S c i e n c e F o u n d a t i o n
Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) at Iowa State University
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4. If you got a mutation, roll your dice again and see the bottom of this sheet. One of your organisms
gets the mutation.
5. Write the results of this generation down. (whether you got a mutation and how many of your
organisms survived or reproduced)
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for each new generation.
Mutations
1. Lose your fur (mutation is dominant)
2. The mutation did not change anything
3. The mutation did not change anything
4. Your fur changes from yellow to green (mutation is dominant)
5. The mutation did not change anything
6. The mutation did not change anything
Generations & Enviromental Events
1. Generation 1. 16 of your 20 hyenas survive. Each of your surviving hyenas produces 1 offspring.
You have 32 hyenas.
If you lost your fur, roll your dice. If you get 2 or higher, that hyena lived and reproduced. If you got a
1, that furless hyena died.
If you now have green fur, you stick out more. Lions are more likely to eat you. Roll the dice, if you
get 5 or higher, the green hyena lives and reproduces 1 green hyena. 4 or lower and that hyena dies.
2. After generation 2, there has been an environmental shift that creates more rainfall. As a result,
there are a lot more plants. This means more small animals (which eat plants) are available for you
to eat. 30 of your 32 hyenas survive. Each surviving hyena produces 1 offspring. You have 60
hyenas.
If you lost your fur, roll your dice. If you get 2 or higher, that hyena lived and reproduced. If you got
a 1, that furless hyena died.
If you now have green fur, you blend in more. Lions are less likely to eat you. The green hyena lives
and reproduces 1 green hyena and 1 normal hyena.
3. After generation 3, because of all of the extra hyenas, the lion population has exploded and your
hyenas have eaten too much. 5 out of every 6 of your normal hyenas have died. If you had 60
D e ve l o p e d b y : S y m b i , I o w a S t a t e ’ s G K - 1 2 P r o g r a m wi t h t h e N a t i o n a l S c i e n c e F o u n d a t i o n
Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) at Iowa State University
W eb s i t e : w w w . g k 1 2 . i a s t a t e . e d u E m a i l : s y m b i @ i a s t a t e . e d u
normal hyenas, you now have 10 surviving normal hyenas. Each one reproduces and you have 20
normal hyenas.
Furless hyenas have a small chance of surviving. Roll your dice. If you get a 6, your furless hyenas
live and reproduce. Otherwise, your furless hyenas have died.
Green hyenas blend in more. Lions are less likely to eat you. Roll the dice, if you get 2 or higher, the
green hyena lives and reproduces 1 green hyena and 1 normal hyena. 1 or lower and the green
hyena dies.
4. After generation 4, some of the excess lions have died due to less hyenas being available to eat.
Your food supply has also replenished. Equillibrium has been achieved. Half of your normal hyenas
die. But they all reproduce, so you have the same amount of normal hyenas.
Furless hyenas have a slightly smaller chance of surviving. Roll your dice. If you get a 5 or higher,
your furless hyenas live and reproduce. Otherwise, your furless hyenas have died.
Green hyenas blend in more. Lions are less likely to eat you. Roll the dice, if you get 2 or higher, the
green hyena lives and reproduces 1 green hyena and 1 normal hyena. 1 or lower and the green
hyena dies.
5 & 6. Generations 5 & 6 are the same as generation 4.
7. After generation 7, there has been an environmental shift that has made it incredibly cold. This
has killed many plants and has made food less abundant. 2 out of every 3 normal hyenas die. Your
remaining hyenas each produce 1 offspring.
All furless hyenas die.
Green hyenas now stick out and are more likely to be eaten. Roll the dice, if you get 5 or higher, the
green hyena lives and reproduces 1 green hyena. 4 or lower and the green hyenas die.
8. Same as generation 7.
Evaluation/ Assessment:
1. Why did we use dice to represent mutations?
2. Look at our possible mutations. What do you notice?
3. What would happen if we used 36 as the number needed to get a mutation? How would this effect
our generations?
D e ve l o p e d b y : S y m b i , I o w a S t a t e ’ s G K - 1 2 P r o g r a m wi t h t h e N a t i o n a l S c i e n c e F o u n d a t i o n
Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) at Iowa State University
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4. Why would a mutation happen but not change anything?
5. What would happen if our mutations were recessive?
6. What would happen to the hyena population if the environment continued to be full of green plant
life? Why?
7. What would happen if we did this again? Would your number of normal, furless, and green
hyenas be the same? Why? What parts would be similar and what would be different?
Additional Uses & Comments:
To improve this the 2nd time around, I would put the generations and environmental events on a
powerpoint presentation (listening to/understanding directions became an issue for several students).
I would also make the number of hyenas surviving each generation dependent on dice rolls so that
students don’t end up with similar numbers of “normal” hyenas. For example: number of normal
hyenas = (result from 1 dice roll) * 1/3 (some arbitrary survival factor that could change depending on
each type of hyena and environmental condition) * 2 (for those that reproduce).
Deliverables:
The goal of this activity is for students to understand that mutations are random and do not occur
because organisms mutate in order to adapt or better suit themselves to the environment. If these
random mutations are beneficial, they can then accumulate in a population over a long period of time
and can eventually result in speciation. It also allows some review into why a mutation could occur
and not have any phenotypic/genotypic effect on an organism. Discussion over questions 3 & 5
should also cover how evolution takes thousands/millions of years to occur.
D e ve l o p e d b y : S y m b i , I o w a S t a t e ’ s G K - 1 2 P r o g r a m wi t h t h e N a t i o n a l S c i e n c e F o u n d a t i o n
Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) at Iowa State University
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*See following pages for deliverables to students and to implement this lesson plan into your
classroom.
(FELLOWS: Please copy and paste any information you gave as handouts or showed on a screen for
instructions in the pages below so we can provide a true useable delivery, thank you for all you are
doing!)
D e ve l o p e d b y : S y m b i , I o w a S t a t e ’ s G K - 1 2 P r o g r a m wi t h t h e N a t i o n a l S c i e n c e F o u n d a t i o n
Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) at Iowa State University
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