Bird Beak Lab

Background:

Charles Darwin observed in his journal that finches living on different Galapagos Islands had
different beaks. He also observed that the environment on each of four islands was quite different
from the environment on the other three islands; in particular, the type of food available to the
finches was different on each island. He developed an hypothesis that the finches had all been
the same at one time, (probably blown over from the coast of South America), with some
variations in their beaks which made some beak types better adapted to the food on each island
and so the birds with those beaks survived and reproduced and the others did not on that
particular island with its particular type of food.

These are an example of four different types of beaks found in finches living in the four different
islands.

Question:
How did all the finches on each different island come to have the same type of beak.

We are going to perform a simulation experiment of what happened on each of the islands that
resulted in the finches on each island having only one type of beak.

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RE-SEED Program, Center for STEM Education, Northeastern University 520 INV, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
 Bird Beak Lab

Materials:

Equipment for each 2 students:

Procedure:

Students work in teams of two. Each team represents the birds with one of the variations of beak
found in the finches which blew over from the coast and therefore uses one of the tools which
represent the variations of beak. There are four teams (eight students), each with different beaks
(tool) deposited on each separate island. Each island is represented by four identical feeding
grounds (paper plates) containing one type of food. Plastic cups represent the bird stomachs.
There are four islands with different foods each having four bird teams representing finches
having a different beak (tool).*

Each team proceeds as follows;

Each team has one tool, a paper plate with the food available on that island, a paper cup and a
stopwatch. One member of the team uses the tool to pick up as much food as possible within 10
seconds and places it into the cup (stomach). The food cannot be touched. The plate and the cup
are held steady by the second team member. The teacher uses a stopwatch and announces the
start and stop of the feeding (ten seconds). The team members switch places and repeat the
feeding placing the additional food in the cup. Then the team measures the amount of food in the
cup and records it. The food is returned to the plate.

Record your data on the experiment sheet as follows:

Island/food

Type of beak
(Tool)
Amount of food

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RE-SEED Program, Center for STEM Education, Northeastern University 520 INV, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
 Bird Beak Lab

The four teams deposited on the island compare their results and determine the number of birds
with each beak in the next generation using the heredity rules;

Type of beak (tool) Amount of food Birds in next generation

Heredity rules;

The bird with the smallest amount of food consumed is declared “starved to death without
reproducing”.
The bird with the most food consumed is declared “thriving” and is rewarded with two children
with the same beak.
The remaining two birds survive and have one child each with the same beak.

The new generation will consist of two birds (beaks/teams) for the bird eating the most food and
declared as thriving, no birds (beaks/teams) for the bird eating the least food and declared starved
and one bird for each of the remaining two birds (beaks/teams).

Repeat the feeding event with each new generation until it is clear which type of beak (tool) will
dominate on this island.

Some questions for the students.

What role do you think natural selection plays in the evolution of man and other organisms?

Are there other things involved in evolution?

Why do you think there are so many different kinds of dogs?

Discussion

Birds’ beaks are the tools they have to use to gather food. The best adapted (fittest) to the
available food have the best chance of surviving (not starving to death) and of having
descendants. The different variations in these beak forms are each an experiment in natural
selection. Only the fittest variant for the beaks will survive (be naturally selected) in this struggle
for life.

These birds must have been separated geographically from each other for a long time. The place
where they each lived must have had different types of food and since no two living beings are
exactly alike the ones with better beaks for the available food would have done better and had

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RE-SEED Program, Center for STEM Education, Northeastern University 520 INV, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
 Bird Beak Lab

more descendants with this inherited beak type. In these descendants there would have been a
selection at each generation towards the better beaks in the population. Over time this selection
would lead towards a better specific inherited beak type. This is how “survival of the fittest” or
natural selection operates through the interaction of the environment and genetic heredity.

The heredity rules used in the simulation are not real since characteristics are not inherited in a
one to one manner and the implied reproduction is asexual and finches are sexual. Also the die
off of the whole population with a particular characteristic in one generation is unrealistic but
allows the simulation to progress swiftly. Interestingly the heredity rules we used are closer to
pangenesis which Darwin earlier espoused but disavowed once it was seen as incompatible with
natural selection. He never came up with a replacement theory and it was not until Gregor
Mendal proposed a better model that we were able to reconcile natural selection with heredity,

Natural selection of course is only one of the mechanisms operating to explain how evolution
works. Inheritance in sexual reproduction is another. Mutation has a role in creating variations
that can be selected on the basis of fitness for a purpose but does not explain all variability.
There are many more questions without answers in determining how evolution works but the fact
of evolution is as certain as anything ever can be in the scientific realm.

*If you do not have enough students to perform all four islands simultaneously (32 students) you
can either cut back the simulation to three islands (24 students) or perform the simulation twice
with two islands (16 students) each time.

March 22, 2012

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RE-SEED Program, Center for STEM Education, Northeastern University 520 INV, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115