Kenneth Salguero

Lab Report
Introduction

In the early 19th the clear majority of scientist and the public did not believe in

evolution, including Charles Darwin. In his early adulthood, he went on a five-year

voyage where he did very intense field work. One of the stops was on the

Galapagos Islands where he documented the various finches on the islands but he

did not notice the differences at first. Once he returned home he began developing

he theory of natural selection. This was when he noticed the differences between

the beaks of the finches and looked back on his observation of them. Darwin

observed 14 finches that the only major difference was the beak shape. He

concluded that the finches came from one original finch whos features became

pronounce over the generations.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis for the experiment we did in class was clothing pins would

outperform any other tool. I arrived at this hypothesis after thinking about every

other tool and wondering which one would have the best balance between speed

and precision. I believe clothing pins would offer the best balance between these

two.

Materials and Methods

The materials used for this experiment were beans, a cup, and one of the following;

tongs, hairclips, clothing pins, chopsticks, tweezers and chip clips. The experiment

consisted of a time test where the objective was to pick up as many beans as

possible and drop it in cup with the given tool. After the test was done everyone

counted their beans and top 3 and bottom 3 were picked. The bottom 3 had their
 Kenneth Salguero

tools replaced with the same type tool from the top 3. The process was then

repeated five times. In the second round one tool was replaced with a chip clip.

Results

Begin R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
Tongs 6 8 8 9 11 13
Hair Clips 6 6 5 5 5 4
Cloth pins 6 4 3 3 3 3
Chopstick 6 5 5 3 2 1
s
Tweezers 6 7 8 9 7 7
Chip Clips 0 0 1 1 1 1
14

12

10

0
Begin R1 R2 R3 R4 R5

Tongs Hairclips Cloth Pins

Chopsticks Tweezers Chip Clips

Starting out there were six of each tool. After the first-round Tongs and Tweezer

increased, Hairclips stagnated and everything else decreased. In round 2, one tong

was replaced with a chip clips, hairclips gained one, tongs, chopsticks and chip clips

stagnated, everything else decreased. In round 3 tongs increased, cloth pins, chip

clips and chopsticks stagnated and everything else decreased. Round 4 saw tongs

increase, chopsticks decrease and everything else stagnate. In the last round tongs

increased, chopsticks and hairclips decreased and everything else stagnated. In

 Kenneth Salguero

total tongs increased by 7, hairclips decreased by 2, cloth pins decreased by 3,

chopsticks decreased by 5, tweezer increased by 1, chip clips stayed the same.

Conclusion

My initial hypothesis was rejected by the experiment. Overall cloth pins lost 50% of

their initial numbers going from 6 to 3. Some factors that may have influenced the

results of the experiments could have been the low sample size, another factor that

could affect the results is the ability of the user to operate the cloth pin. The ability

to replicate this experiment is very important to the validity of the experiment. If

someone else replicates it and comes up with the same results this helps support

the conclusion of the experiment.

Discussion

The scientific is a process of testing and verifying claims. The first step in the

scientific make a hypothesis, the next step after that is design an experiment to test

the hypothesis. Then once you gather your data you can make a conclusion on your

hypothesis. Other scientist should be able to run the same experiment and come up

with the same results to confirm your conclusion. This experiment we performed in

class had all the elements of the scientific method. We made a hypothesis the

prediction of which tool would do better, we ran the experiment and gathered the

data. Afterwords we evaluated the data to check if our hypothesis was supported.

There are 4 assumptions of natural selection, variation, inheritance, competition,

differential reproductive success. This experiment roughly simulated the 4 major

aspects of evolution. The variation of tools represented the variation of present in

natural life. Inheritance was simulated by keeping the same tools if you didnt place

in the bottom 3. Competition was simulated by the desire not to place in the bottom
 Kenneth Salguero

3. Reproductive success was simulated by giving the tools of the top 3 to the

bottom 3.

Bibliography

https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/amnh/human-evolutio/darwin-and-

evolution-by-natural-selection/a/charles-darwins-evidence-for-evolution

http://www.hras.org/sw/sw11-04.html