Hunger Games Final Analysis

1. In this lab, we used either our wrists, two knuckles, or two fingers to pick up corks. The wrists, knuckles, and fingers represented types of beaks while the corks represented food. We had to get certain amount every time to be able to survive and reproduce. Wrists were called stumpies, with a genotype of AA, two knuckles were called knucklers, with a genotype of Aa and two fingers were called pinchers, with a genotype of aa. To reproduce, we found a mate and used coins with one allele of each genotype on either side to determine what phenotype (AA, Aa, aa) and genotype (stumpies, knucklers, pinchers) our offspring will have. This lab simulated how populations evolve over time due to natural selection.

2. The Aa phenotype was the best at catching food because they had the best trait to survive in the environment since they were able to get food faster and had a better grip on their food.

3. The population did evolve. I know this because the population started with a 50-50 on each allele, and ended with a 38% for the A allele and 62% for the a allele. Also, the graph below shows how the a allele slowly decreased in frequency and how the A allele increased in frequency.

4. Some events in this lab were random. For instance, the disturbance of food and types of birds in the circle were random. Some events in this lab weren't random. For instance, the types of beaks and style of eating were not changed. There was never a mutation or invasive species in the population.

5. If the food was larger, stumpies might have had it easier. If food was smaller, pinches might have it easier. In some areas of the world where birds eat small seeds,  they have smaller beaks. In other areas where birds eat large seeds, they have bugger beaks.

6. Yes. Knucklers wouldn't exist, so stumpies would probably be exist.

7. Natural selection acts on an individual in a population, which causes evolution, which is the gradual change in a population, which is caused by natural selection.

8. Stumpies tried to stack corks with their wrists, knucklers picked up two corks with each knuckle pair, and pinchers picked up two corks with each finger pair. To reproduce, they would try to pair with their own variation to increase their chances of reproducing. Some behaviors that are similar in nature is mating rituals and different types of beaks.

9. Evolution causes the population to evolve because the experiment showed how the population slowly evolved. Natural selection acts on the phenotype since the experiment showed how the population was affected by different phenotypes.

10. Will certain types of food affect results? Does placement of food matter?