Evolution Artifact; Gizmo Learning Activity
The artifact that I have chosen for the Evolution Unit is the natural selection Gizmo on Explore Learning about the peppered moth. This activity was done during class for the evolution unit on the computer. I chose this artifact because it demonstrates natural selection and proves the theory of natural selection from Charles Darwin. Moreover, the artifact activity occurred in the 19th century in England. During the time the air was clean, but then dark colored soot changed the bark of the tree to a dark color, which helped dark colored moths survive and reproduce. Natural Selection acts on heritable variations of individuals and results in a population that is better adapted to its current environment.
For the artifact I had to capture moths on light and dark colored trees (like the birds that eat moths; lichen), the moths that appeared more visibly on the different colors of trees caused extinction for those species. For example, for the dark colored trees, the moths that survived was the dark colored moths because the dark colored moths adapted to their environment, reproduced more since there were more dark colored moths. However, because the dark colored moths lived longer on the dark colored tree than the white colored moth it resulted in the white colored moth extinction because the prey (the birds) could notice the white moths more better than the dark colored moths on the dark colored tree. This is because the darker colored moths adapted to their environment and camouflaged themselves, while the white moths could not because they cannot camouflage into their environment, since the dark tree color does not match with the white colored moths on the dark colored trees. Additionally, for the second activity on the gizmo the reverse was also done, the white moths and dark colored moths were on light colored trees before the 19th century when the trees changed color because of the industry revolution, and in this case the white colored moths survived and passed on their traits to their offspring which resulted in the extinction of dark colored moths. This also, made the dominant alleles present and resulted in a shift of allele frequency. These types of natural selection are directional selection, since it only favors one of the moth species in the different scenarios. This is significant to me because this activity helped me understand natural selection, Darwin's theory, how species adapt and the mechanisms of evolution. Also, I can apply this to everyday life, for example if I see white squirrels in a community and less brown squirrels it demonstrates that the white squirrels have a more favorable trait in which there is more white than brown squirrels.
For the artifact I had to capture moths on light and dark colored trees (like the birds that eat moths; lichen), the moths that appeared more visibly on the different colors of trees caused extinction for those species. For example, for the dark colored trees, the moths that survived was the dark colored moths because the dark colored moths adapted to their environment, reproduced more since there were more dark colored moths. However, because the dark colored moths lived longer on the dark colored tree than the white colored moth it resulted in the white colored moth extinction because the prey (the birds) could notice the white moths more better than the dark colored moths on the dark colored tree. This is because the darker colored moths adapted to their environment and camouflaged themselves, while the white moths could not because they cannot camouflage into their environment, since the dark tree color does not match with the white colored moths on the dark colored trees. Additionally, for the second activity on the gizmo the reverse was also done, the white moths and dark colored moths were on light colored trees before the 19th century when the trees changed color because of the industry revolution, and in this case the white colored moths survived and passed on their traits to their offspring which resulted in the extinction of dark colored moths. This also, made the dominant alleles present and resulted in a shift of allele frequency. These types of natural selection are directional selection, since it only favors one of the moth species in the different scenarios. This is significant to me because this activity helped me understand natural selection, Darwin's theory, how species adapt and the mechanisms of evolution. Also, I can apply this to everyday life, for example if I see white squirrels in a community and less brown squirrels it demonstrates that the white squirrels have a more favorable trait in which there is more white than brown squirrels.
![Picture](/uploads/2/7/2/8/27287989/5716891.jpg?476)
This is a picture of the natural selection activity. In the picture there is the dark colored tree.