Grade Level / Subject

Unit
Enduring
Understanding

SOL Objectives

Title
Lesson Objective

Inquiry Level
Materials Needed

How is it level 2?

Life Science / 7th

Evolution / Natural Selection
Populations change over time because some members of a
population are better adapted to an environment and are
more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on their genes for
specific characteristics. (Evolution is driven by natural
selection)
LS.13
The student will investigate and understand that
populations of organisms change over time. Key
concepts include
a) the relationships of mutation, adaptation, natural
selection, and extinction;
b) evidence of evolution of different species in the
fossil record; and
c) how environmental influences, as well as
genetic variation, can lead to diversity of
organisms.
Woolybooger Lab Which beak is best?
SWBAT predict and simulate how a population of organisms
will evolve.
SWBAT explain how and why the population evolved in the
way that it did.
2
dried beans
knives
binder clips
tweezers
spoons
paper plate (1 per group)
cups (1 per person)
Teacher provides the research question and methods.
Solutions are not provided.

WOOLYBOOGER LAB
TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS

NAME __________________________
DATE _______________ BLOCK _____

Background: You and your team are crewmembers on the

Beagle in 1831. Darwin has asked your team to assist him in
collecting data on a strange and unusual bird that he has
discovered on the Galapagos Islands. He has called this bird
the woolybooger. Darwin and your team search the islands and
find three different populations of this creature. During
your observations of these three populations, you discover that
each group is similar in appearance except for mouth
variations. Some woolyboogers have a knife-shaped mouth,
some have a clip-shaped mouth, and some have a tweezershaped mouth. All of the birds have migrated to an island that
only has dried beans for them too eat and the hours of daylight
needed for finding food is steadily decreasing due to the
change in seasons.
Darwin and your team study the woolyboogers life on the Galapagos Islands. During your last few
months on the islands, you discover a new rare woolybooger, which has a spoon-shaped mouth. On the
Beagle, Darwin and your team discuss which beak type of woolybooger will survive the best on the island and
how the population of woolyboogers will change over time or evolve.

MATERIALS (for a class):

beans
knives
dissecting needles
tweezers
spoons
containers for beans
cups
PROCEDURE:
1. You will run through five trials of feeding by the woolyboogers. You will be
assigned a feeding tool to gather your favorite food, beans. You must use your
utensil as demonstrated to capture food. You cannot scoop the beans into the
cup, which represents your stomach. You must lift the beans, one or two at a
time, with your utensil.
You will give the feeding tools to the students. For each table, one person should get
a tweezer, one should get a needle, and one should get a knife. For an entire class,
only 2 people should get spoons. Which means if there are 4 people at a table, only 2
tables with get a spoon. For the 4th person at the remaining tables, give them any of
the implements (other than the spoon) so that the number of different implements is
about equal.
You will also give each student a small white cup to act as their stomach. Have a
student pass these out.

Each table will also receive 2 pie pans of pinto beans. Every 2 people will share or
eat out of the same pie pan. Have a student pass these out also. The pie pans are on
table #7.
Now, demonstrate how each mouth is used for eating. Emphasize that students can
only pick up a maximum of 2 beans at a time. With the tweezers, they must use the
end of the tweezers to grab hold of a bean and put it in their stomach (cup). With
the needle, they must stab the bean and lift it to their stomach. With the knife,
they must slide the knife under the beans and only pick up 2 at a time to drop into
their stomach. The spoon can be used as a spoon, but they can only pick up 2 beans
at a time to drop into their stomach. Let them practice for a few seconds.
2. You will be required to capture at least 20 beans in a trial in order to survive. If
20 beans are not captured, your woolybooger has died. When a woolybooger dies,
in the next trial you will play the role of the offspring of the most successful
surviving woolybooger (the woolybooger capturing the most beans).
3. The first trial will last 1 minute 15 seconds, the second 1 minute, the third 45
seconds, the fourth 30 seconds and the fifth will be 15 seconds. The teacher will
time the class. You will be timing the students all at the same time. You can
either use the clock on the wall or a stop watch.
4. Because woolyboogers with spoon-shaped mouths are rare, only a few of you will
be assigned this tool for the first generation of woolyboogers.
Before you begin the first trial, fill in the first column of the data table with the
number of knives, needles, tweezers, and spoons you gave out to the students. Put this
on the overhead and students should fill it out on their sheets with you.
DATA TABLE:
Number of woolyboogers at beginning of each trial
Mouth
shape

1 minute
15 seconds

1 minute

45
seconds

30
seconds

15 seconds

Knife
Needle
Tweezer
Spoon
2
Now, time them for 1 minute 15 seconds of eating. When you say STOP all eating
ceases and no more beans go in the cup!
At this point, you need the class to count their beans. Then you need to get a count of
how many knives got 20 beans. Put that number in the second column of the data
table. Do the same for the number of needles and tweezers that got 20 beans.

Enter the number of needles and tweezers in the data table. Count the number of
spoons that got 20 beans. Dont enter the number of spoons in the data table yet.
For people who did not get 20 beans, they died and will now become the most successful
feeding mouth. I am going to assume the spoon got the most beans! In which case,
anyone who died, now becomes a spoon so then you count the number of spoons who
got 20 beans, plus the new spoons and put that number in the column for 1 minute (as
that is how many spoons you will be starting with). I hope you can understand all this!
Youll do the same thing at the end of each trial. I hope Ive guessed correctly that 2
spoons will eventually become the majority of the class. If not, you may want to start
out with 3 spoons in the next class.
When done with the 5 trials, have students put all the materials away. Check the floor
for beans that might have fallen. Students then may work on questions below.
Please collect the questions when they are done.

Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________ Block: _____ Score: ____ / 8pts

WOOLYBOOGER LAB Which Beak is Best?

Background: You and your team are crewmembers on the
Beagle in 1831. Darwin has asked your team to assist him in
collecting data on a strange and unusual bird that he has
discovered on the Galapagos Islands. He has called this bird
the woolybooger. Darwin and your team search the islands and
find three different populations of this creature. During
your observations of these three populations, you discover that
each group is similar in appearance except for mouth
variations. Some woolyboogers have a knife-shaped mouth,
some have a clip-shaped mouth, and some have a tweezershaped mouth. All of the birds have migrated to an island that
only has dried beans for them too eat and the hours of daylight
needed for finding food is steadily decreasing due to the
change in seasons.
Darwin and your team study the woolyboogers life on the Galapagos Islands. During your last few
months on the islands, you discover a new rare woolybooger, which has a spoon-shaped mouth. On the
Beagle, Darwin and your team discuss which beak type of woolybooger will survive the best on the island and
how the population of woolyboogers will change over time or evolve.
MATERIALS:
dried beans
knives
binder clips
tweezers
spoons
paper plate (1 per group)
cups (1 per person)

PROCEDURE:
1. You will run through five trials of feeding by the woolyboogers. You will be assigned a feeding tool
to gather your favorite food, beans. You must use your utensil as demonstrated to capture food.
You cannot scoop the beans into the cup, which represents your stomach. You must lift the beans,
one or two at a time, with your utensil. The cup must stay in your hand during feeding.
2. You will be required to capture at least 20 beans in a trial in order to survive. If 20 beans are not
captured, your woolybooger has died. When a woolybooger dies, in the next trial you will play the
role of the offspring of the most successful surviving woolybooger (the woolybooger capturing the
most beans).
3. The first trial will last 1 minute 15 seconds, the second 1 minute, the third 45 seconds, the fourth
30 seconds and the fifth will be 15 seconds. The teacher will time the class.
4. Because woolyboogers with spoon-shaped mouths are rare, only a few of you will be assigned this
tool for the first generation of woolyboogers.

Hypothesis: Which beak do you think will work best? How do you think the woolybooger population will
change over time (evolve)?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

DATA TABLE:
Number of woolyboogers at beginning of each trial
Mouth
shape

1 minute
15
seconds

1
minute

45
seconds

30
seconds

15
seconds

Knife

Clip

Tweezer

Spoon

APPLICATION QUESTIONS: (answer in complete sentences)

Final
Number

1. Describe how the woolybooger population evolved (changed over time)? How did this compare to your
hypothesis from before we ran this simulation? (at least 3 sentences)

2. Which variation of woolybooger beak was best adapted to survive on the island? Why? What happened
to the woolyboogers who were less adapted to survive on the island?

3. What would be necessary in nature for all the variations of woolyboogers to be able to coexist and all
reproduce without one beating out another?

4. What is a real-life example of the woolybooger, where one organism has a definite advantage over
another organism of the same species? Explain.

5. In what ways was this simulation realistic?

6. In what ways was this simulation unrealistic?

7. How could this activity be improved or expanded upon to make it more realistic?

8. What do you think were the big ideas to be learned from this activity?