A Fun Hands-on Exploration of Natural Selection in Science Class
As part of their new SEPUP Life Science Unit on Evolution, the 7th grade class was able to connect back to their previous unit on Reproduction by investigating the role of variation in how natural selection works over time. They conducted a hands-on simulation of birds with various beak traits feeding on "Wild Loops". The students learned how natural selection works to favor certain traits that are better suited to an organism's ability to acquire food in order to have a better chance of surviving long enough to reproduce offspring, thus showing the evolution of the various bird beak traits over many generations.