Transcript Document

SC300: Big Ideas in Science: From Methods to Mutation
• Welcome to Unit 6 Seminar
• Tonight we will discuss adaptations
▫ Survival of the fittest is used to describe natural
selection.
 We will be exploring who is fit to survive seminar
tonight when we set new typing rules.
▫ I will be available at AIM:KaplanHallPogar
before and throughout the seminar if you
have any questions or issues.
• We will begin promptly at 8:00pmEST
Looking ahead
• Unit 6
▫ Food Choices Assignment
 Keep track and record what you eat for 2 meals
 You will have to research where the food originated
3
Biology Basics: Evolution
http://www.wiley.com/college/test/0471787159/biology_basic
s/animations/evolution.html
Adaptation
• Creatures need to (1) survive and (2) finding mates
▫ Certain characteristics make these things easier
▫ As these creatures undergo natural selection the
adaptive traits become more and more common
▫ Natural selection as a process can be very slow
Adaptation
• Examples
▫ Cactus plants have evolved their thick, watertrapping cell structure to help them survive months in
the desert without rain
▫ Some birds evolved different beak shapes that are
well-suited to the particular kind of food they eat
Simulation of Natural Selection
• Instructor will say “START”
• Students have 5 minutes to chat about the
weather
• Catch you can not use the letter “e”
• Instructor will say “STOP”
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What if...
• What if you were to live in a 'u'-free environment?
• What other letters might struggle and die out?
Reflection - Squirrels
1. What might happen to them if all the oak trees
(and therefore acorns) died out?
2. What adaptations might they have to make to
adjust to the acorn-free world?
3. How might these changes affect their body
structures?
Reflection - Squirrels
4. After 50,000 years of living in an acorn- free
world, how might squirrels look?
5. Why does this kind of evolutionary change take
so long?