Meeting Abstract
We have developed a scalable classroom activity that illustrates how evolution occurs at the population level, specifically the inheritance and variation of a trait with and without natural selection. The Next Generation Science Standards cite inheritance and variation of traits, natural selection, and evolution as disciplinary core ideas (NGSS LS3/LS4). Our activity was designed to align with these goals. The simplest version of our activity, introduces students to drift, selection and fitness, and tree thinking. Advanced versions of our activity build on our simpler versions, incorporating higher-level concepts. Our activity considers bird color, but the patterns illustrated are general to all of evolution. Students model the evolution of bird color in a population through time. Using a board-game type spinner, students assign phenotypes (plumage color) and differential reproduction to individual, asexual, birds across a population, over successive discrete generations. At the completion of the activity, students have created a pedigree of individuals, showing how plumage color has changed over time and its relationship to surviving clades. Students’ results illustrate population-level processes that generate morphological diversity.
