“Who Wants to Live a Million Years?” Internet Activity
Follow the directions for each part of this activity and answer the questions.
Use the link on eClass page.
Part A: Select Learn about Natural Selection and answer the following questions:
1. Every species exhibits _____________. What are
variations?
2. List three variations in the finches pictured below.
 Go to the next part.
3. Many __________ are passed from parent to offspring. What is a trait?
 Go to the next part.
4. Life in the wild is competitive, and organisms with the most beneficial traits will prosper. This
is commonly known as “______________________________”. Explain survival of the fittest in your
own words.
5. What happens to beneficial traits with in a population?
Part B: Go to the tab at the top labeled Darwin’s Bio and answer the following questions.
6. Darwin served as naturalist aboard a ship named the _______________ for ___years.
7. What did he discover in South America?
8. The expedition to the Galapagos was very important in Darwin’s creation of his theory of
natural selection. What did he observe of the living things there that helped him formulate
this idea?
9. What is the name of the book written by Darwin that introduced the world to his theory of
evolutionary selection?
Part C: Go to “Survival Game” at the top. Play the game and answer the following questions based
on your performance in the game. You must play the game at least three times.
Object of the Game: You will be choosing different traits of the same species to reproduce and make a
population. If you have good traits then your species will survive. If you want, you can use a genetic
mutation life preserver to add another trait variation into the experiment. You can do this twice in the
game. If your population does not have enough variation, they might not survive the changes to their
environment. Make sure to read all instructions and refer to this worksheet. Begin playing!
GAME ONE
10. Select your population: Draw and color picture of the three trait variants you selected for
your population then hit proceed.
11. What changes occurred to the environment during the first game?
12. How many years did your species survive? Why did they not survive? Explain.
GAME TWO
13. Select your population: Draw and color picture of the three trait variants you selected for
your population then hit proceed.
14. What changes occurred to the environment during the first game?
15. How many years did your species survive? Why did they not survive? Explain.
GAME THREE
16. Select your population: Draw and color picture of the three trait variants you selected for
your population then hit proceed.
17. What changes occurred to the environment during the first game?
18. How many years did your species survive? Why did they not survive? Explain.
After you are finished playing your third game, answer questions 20-25.
19. Why is it beneficial to have diversity (variation) in a population?
20. What were some of the limiting factors (conditions that limit the growth, abundance or
distribution of a population) in your environment that hindered the survival of some of your
population?
21. Did mutations help your population survive longer? If yes, explain why. Did those mutations
benefit the individual or the offspring?
22. Does Natural Selection affect individuals or populations? Explain.
Part D: Take the quiz
23. What was your score and what did the quiz say about you at the end? 