Blog Post Week 9

Week 9

During lab this week, we talked about our upcoming exam, reviewed our previous lesson, and then we learned about natural selection and evolution. Natural selection is one of the mechanisms for evolution, where inherited traits become more or less common in a population. Evolution is descent with modification, from small-scale to large-scale evolution. Small-scale evolution includes a change that affects one or a few genes in a short period of time, typically.  Large-scale evolution includes changes that happen over an extended period of time that make significant changes and can even create new species. 

To explore these ideas we participated in a simulation activity with beans. The beans acted as prey and the utensils acted as predators. We formed a hypothesis before the lab as to which predator would affect the most beans and then completed the simulation. This was a simple way to depict this otherwise complex concept and is something I would love to incorporate in my classroom to further engage my students. 

I have limited prior knowledge on this topic besides the fundamental components we discussed. The only remaining questions I have are how to make this lesson last over multiple days so students can get a more in-depth understanding. Also what real-life examples would be most relevant to my students while teaching about natural selection?