BATTLE OF THE BEAKS
A Natural Selection Lab
Objective: Understand that species that are better adapted to take advantage of
available foods will fare better in their environments as opposed to those who are
less adapted. As such, those with advantageous traits will survive and reproduce
and those that do not will slowly die out in the genetic pool.
Materials:
Beaks: tweezers, binderclip, fork, clothespin
Food: rubber bands, paper clips, toothpicks, Cheerios
Misc: cup, stopwatch
Part 1 Procedure:
1. Students will be placed in groups of 4 and select a beak type.
2. Each student will be given a cup to represent the birds stomach. The
stomach must remain upright at all times. One hand must be holding the
beak and the other holding the stomach. You can only place 1 piece of food
in your stomach at a time. NO EXCEPTIONS.
3. There will be 4 rounds of each beak collecting the different foods. Students
will have 30 seconds to collect as much of each food type as they can. At the
end of 30 seconds, students will empty their stomach, count the contents and
record the data into Table 1.
4. This activity will repeat until all beaks have had a chance to eat 1 food type,
then we will move onto a different food.
Hypothesis:
Make an initial hypothesis about which beak you think will perform the best and
why.
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Make a hypothesis about which beak you think will perform the worst and why.
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Table 1:
Paper Clips
Rubberbands
Toothpicks
Cheerios
Clothespin
Fork
Binder Clip
Tweezers
Part 1 Questions:
1. What beak did you use in this part? Why did you choose this one?
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2. What did you notice about the feeding abilities in your group? Which beak
performed the best across all food types? Which beak performed the worst?
How did your beak perform?
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3. If there was a catastrophic event that killed off the entire paper clip
population, how would this effect the bird population in your group?
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Part 2:
1. Almost every environment across the world has more than one food type
available to predators. Predators do not take turns eating, meaning there is
competition for limited food resources. This round will feature all food types
and beaks in the feeding area at once.
2. Students will have 1 minute to collect as much food in the feeding area as
they can. The same rules apply for Part 2 meaning only one piece of food
can be collected at once.
3. Record the data of every group member into Table 2 and then answer the
questions below.
Table 2
Paper Clips
Rubberbands
Toothpicks
Cheerios
Clothespin
Fork
Binder Clip
Tweezers
Part 2 Questions:
1. What was your strategy for this round?
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2. Was there another beak type competing for the same food as you? If so,
which one?
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3. Which beak collected the most food? Which beak collected the least? We
can assume that the birds that collected the most food will survive and
reproduce, and the birds that collected the least amount of food will die off.
What will the next generation of birds look like?
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4. What would happen if all the birds we worked with today flew to a place
where no bird had ever been before and the only food type there were
toothpicks? Which birds would be the most successful? Which would be the
least successful? Explain your answer.
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5. Were your hypotheses correct or incorrect? What contributed to your correct
or incorrect hypotheses?
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Class Data from Part 2:
Paper Clips
Clothespin
Fork
Pens
Tweezers
Class Bar Graph
Rubberbands
Toothpicks
Beads
Reflection:
1. How did you perform in the lab today?
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2. How did you think like a scientist today?
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3. What did you do to make the lab a success for your group?
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4. What are some things you could improve on for next time?
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