I am out today and will have a substitute covering science classes. Students will be responsible for viewing a video about evolution and completing the notes questionnaire in Google Classroom. Students are responsible for watching the first 35 minutes of the video and will need to use their time well to complete the assignment within the class period. Here is a link to the video:
ASSIGNMENT:
To better understand the theory of natural selection, students will do a number of activities that look at the real-life example of the peppered moth.
Here is the story from EnchantedLearning.com:
The peppered moth (Biston betularia) is a moth that was drastically affected by soot pollution in England in the 1800’s and is a classic demonstration of natural selection. In England in the 1880’s, soot covered much of the landscape, following the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Previous to the soot problem, the light-colored variety of the moth (called typis) was common in England. Its speckled coloration helped camouflage the moth when perched on birch tree trunks (this nocturnal moth rests on birch tree trunks during the day). This type of camouflage is called cryptic coloration. After pollution covered many of the trees with a dark layer of soot and killed the light, whitish-gray colored lichens that lived on the tree trunks, a dark form of the moth (called carbonaria) was observed (presumably since the light-colored variety was no longer camouflaged when at rest on trees, and they were caught by birds – the dark-colored variety were now better camouflaged and more likely to survive and reproduce). The dark form of the peppered moth was first observed in 1848, and by 1895, 95 percent of the peppered moths were of the darker type. This phenomenon is called “industrial melanism.”
You can watch a short video about it here: BBC Evolution of the Peppered Moth
Students will use these online simulations to better understand the change in the moth population.
ASSIGNMENTS:
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