Bird Beak Lab

Hypothesis(claim)	Evidence of this occurring	Reasoning for this
Individuals with better traits leave more offspring	Tweezer beaks had more offspring Had 44% of the total offspring	The tweezers collected more food, which made more offspring
Populations begin to look more like the winners	Almost half of the new population(44%) had tweezer  beaks	Tweezers pass on their traits and make more offspring and others don’t

 In this lab we asked the question, "If natural selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of that species?" Before the environment changed, we found that out of the beak types: scissors, tweezers, scissors, and a binder clip, the tweezers got the most food resulting in more offspring.The tweezers managed to pick up enough food to support 31 chicks. The next beak type that was also quite effective was the binder clip, at 19 chicks.  The worst one out of the 4, was the spoon, at 10 chicks. This confirmed Charles Darwin's conclusion that, "Individuals whose inherited  traits help them survive and reproduce more tend to leave more offspring than other individuals." However, the environment later changed, and the results were drastically different. The environment change was that we had 10 seconds to collect food instead of 30. Here, the binder clip had the most total offspring, at 16. Tweezers were close behind, at 14 chicks. The least number of chicks was different this time. It was the scissors beak, at 7 chicks. This proves that environment changes affect a population and its traits.

While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors due to the "food" we were given. Maybe if one beak that did not get as much offspring could have had a food that they were good at collecting. However, there might not have been as much of that food. This would have caused the beak to not produce as much offspring. Next time, make sure that all the materials that are needed are present to provide the most exact data. Secondly, it would be unfair for certain players/birds because the food would be more towards others, and also because of the limited space it didn't allow us do our best. This cause some people to maybe have an a vantage because the food was closer to them. For future references,maybe make the field a bit bigger so that it is evenly spread out.

This lab was done to demonstrate natural selection and resembles the competition between the different organisms in an environment. From this lab, I learned how different features affect the lives of species. Also, this supported conclusions of Charles Darwin. This can be used to raise awareness to protect other species from these environment changes. Based on my experience from this lab, I now get a closer feeling of the competition between animals.