Download Natural Selection Worksheet

iNatural
Selection Activity: Peppered Moth Name:
Modern evolution theory states that if the frequency of genes in a population
changes over time, then the population is evolving.
Peppered moths range in color from dark to light. The dark moths have the
dominant gene for wing scale color and are either DD or Dd. The light-colored
moths have the recessive genes and are dd.
INSTRUCTIONS
To see how peppered moths use camouflage to avoid bluejays…
Type your name on this page, then click “save as” Peppered Moths. You will print and hand in this page
when you are done. No writing is necessary.
Click this Link: http://www.techapps.net/interactives/pepperMoths.swf
Directions: Click “Pollution and Peppered Moths”  read the information and click through the slides
 Kettlewell’s Experiment (Click and read)  Click “Bird’s Eye View” (read)  Click “Light Forest”
Play: You are the Blue Jay eating as many moths as possible.
Lichen-covered forest
1. Before the blue jay starts to eat, what percentage of moths are light-colored? **
what percentage of moths are dark-colored? **
2. Feed your bluejay by clicking on as many moths as possible.
What percentage of the moth population is light-colored now? **
What percentage of the moth population is dark-colored now? **
3. In the lichen colored forest, what trait is selected for? **
What trait is selected against? **
Release moths in the soot-covered forest.
4. Before the blue jay starts to eat, what percentage of moths are light-colored? **
what percentage of moths are dark-colored? **
5. Feed your bluejay by clicking on as many moths as possible.
What percentage of the moth population is light-colored now? **
What percentage of the moth population is dark-colored now? **
6. In the soot covered forest, what trait is selected for? **
What trait is selected against? **
7. What kind of selection is changing the distribution of moth colors in the lichen and soot covered forests?
Drag and drop the red circle to circle the correct answer.
directional
1.
disruptive
stabilizing
Data Table
Percent Dark Moths
Lichen Forest
Sooty Forest
Percent Light Moths
2.
Explain how the color of moths increases or decreases their chances of survival
depending on the environment.
3. 500 light colored moths and 500 dark colored moths are released into a polluted forest.
After 2 days the moths were recaptured, make a prediction about the number of each type of
moth that would be captured.
4. How has the striking change in coloration come about? (Include an explanation of how
the dark moth appeared and how the proportion of dark moths changed from 0.0005% to more
than 90% in polluted forests.)
5.
What underlying law of nature has produced this change? (Hint: answer in
“Pollution and Peppered Moths” section)
6.
How does the change in allele frequency show evolution?