Download Wooly Worm Activity

Name_________________________________
TKT#__________________________________
WOOLY WORM ACTIVITY
In the exercise you will study natural selection. During the exercise you will represent a predatory
bird who feeds on wooly worms. The wooly worms are pieces of colored yarn that are distributed
throughout your planter. Some of the “wooly worms” will blend into the habitat, while others will be
easy to find. You will tally the number of each color worm that you “eat”.
1. In different groups, you will take turns feeding during the feeding period. You may only use
the chopsticks, as if all you had was a beak. No fingers, tongues, teeth or any other thing that
you can think of, only the CHOPSTICKS
2. After your feeding period, record the color of worms you “ate” and how many of each color
got “eaten”.
3. The point of this exercise is to illustrate how natural selection works. If the “wooly worms”
were “eaten” randomly, with no preference for color, then the number of each color “eaten”
should be nearly equal.
4. In a type-written, 1-page essay describe your experience “eating” the wooly worms. You must
turn in this sheet with your essay. Be sure that you address the following in your essay:
a. Identify the color of your “grass”
b. Identify the color and the numbers of the “wooly worms” you at MOST and LEAST often
c. Identify the advantage of the “wooly worm” eaten LEAST often
d. Identify how this activity illustrates natural selection
e. Finally, imagine that you are a “wooly worm” in today’s exercise, what color “wooly
worm” would you want to be and why? Remember to phrase your answer in
evolutionary terms.
COLOR
# OF EACH COLOR
;
Please turn this sheet in, stapled to your 1-page paper
Assignment Total = 25 points