Bird Beak Lab Conclusion

Part 1

Our claim for the first part of the lab was "individuals with better traits leave more offspring". It was supported by our data because the tweezers and chopsticks picked up the most food and left more offspring by the end. The beaks with tweezers and chopsticks both left 15 chicks and the other beaks leave 2, 3, and 4.

Our second claim was that "populations begin to look more like the winners." This was proven by how the tweezers and chopsticks dominated the resources more than other birds, taking away their chances for reproduction. This was because the tweezers and chopsticks can support their offspring with enough food and the offspring will continue to dominate.

Part 2
  In this lab, we asked the question "if natural selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of that species?". We found that as time goes on, species of birds would evolve to look more like the tweezer beak birds and the chopstick beak birds because of their traits that let them pick up the most food and leave the most offspring. Our data showed that the tweezer and chopstick beak birds had the most offspring with 15 chicks each, which was about 21.4% of all the total chicks. The spoon had 14 chicks, the binder clip had 13 chips, and the scissor had 13 chicks. This data supports our claim because natural selection will cause the beaks of birds to evolve and become like the tweezer and chopstick birds so that they can have better traits.

  Even though our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors about timing and food types.
The first error is that some of the types of beaks could pick up specific types of food better than the rest, making species that go for the same niche more competitive. For example, if a binder clip can pick up macaroni the best and a tweezer could pick up rubber bands the best, and there were more rubber bands than macaroni, the tweezer would probably pick up the most food and leave more offspring. This would cause the population to start looking more like the tweezer bird and the binder clip birds would start to look like the "losers". To fix this, There should be equal amounts of each food.
The second error is the timing not being perfect, which could have caused some people to have more time and others to have less time. For instance, one person could have started picking up food earlier and they could have more time to collect food. This would cause some people to have more or less offspring than they should really have within the time allotted. Timing can be more precise by having individual timers at each table instead of just with Mr. Orre.
This lab was done to demonstrate how natural selection plays a major role in evolution of a certain species. From this lab, I learned that small change can cause a huge change in the appearance of a population. It showed more about the evolution of a species which helps me understand the concept of natural selection showing "winners" and "losers". Based on my experience from this lab I understand why nature is so competitive and how different species change.