Sex and the Single Guppy
This interactive activity leads students through different habitats within a stream and how guppies adapt to different factors within the stream, hence creating a wide variety of different guppy populations. Students first explore the different habitats and how the guppy populations adapt to each habitat through predation and natural selection. Then students can set up their own experiment by selecting the traits of a guppy population and choosing predators. Students are able to see how the guppy population will change over time as natural selection occurs.
This activity directly relates to the learning expectations associated with natural selection and adaptation. In the guppy population, color adaptation and its evolutionary advantages are explored. Drab coloring helps guppies avoid predation, and bright coloring helps guppies have a better chance at mating and passing on genetic information. Students are guided into understanding how different traits can be an advantage, a hindrance, or both for different organisms under different conditions.
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