Download Jelly bellicus lab booklet jelly_bellicus_lab.booklet.2011

The Discovery of
Jelly Bellicus
(using jelly beans to explore natural selection)
Name:
Date:
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Introduction
Captain Dan and his crew were sailing from South
America to Australia when they encountered a severe
storm. The ship tossed in the sea for days before coming
to rest on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. The
ship was badly damaged and most of the supplies had
fallen overboard during the storm. Dan and his crew
were very hungry and the island didn’t promise much in
the way of food.
After stepping foot on the unusual pine-shaving terrain,
the crew discovered tiny organisms hiding in the grass.
They named them Jelly bellicus because the organisms
reminded them of a sweet treat back home. Upon closer
inspection the crew realized that there were eight
different varieties of Jelly bellicus. The crew began
gobbling up as many of the delicious critters as they
could find. Over time, the population of Jelly bellicus
was drastically reduced, and the crew began fighting for
what was left.
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Part I: Cryptic Coloration
List the 8 different Jelly Bellicus varieties (colors)
discovered by Captain Dan and his crew.
1.
5.
2.
6.
3.
7.
4.
8.
Procedure:
1. Fill your box lid with shavings.
2. Count the jelly beans in your presorted bag. You should have
10 jelly beans of each color (for a total of 80). SAFETY NOTE:
These jelly bellies are NOT fit for consumption. DO NOT EAT
THEM!
3. Add the 80 jelly beans to your box and mix them into the
shaving to make them harder to find.
4. Find breakfast: at teacher direction, take 20 seconds to find and
remove as many jelly beans as you can find. All crewmembers
can search at the same time.
NOTE: the ‘terrain’ must stay IN THE BOX
5. Record the number of jelly beans found for each crewmember
in the ‘breakfast’ chart below.
6. Put all collected jelly beans back into the box to simulate
moving to a new location.
7. Repeat the procedure from ‘dinner’.
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DATA: Part I – Cryptic Coloration
Breakfast
Team
Member
Jelly bellicus Color
TOTALS
Dinner
Team
Member
Jelly bellicus Color
TOTALS
Analysis - Part I
1. Which jelly beans did your team ‘consume’ the most of?
Why do you think that they were easier to find?
2. Which jelly beans did your team ‘consume’ the least of?
Why were these more challenging to find?
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Part II: Aposematic Coloration & Mimicry
After eating mainly spotted red Jelly bellicus, several of the
crewmembers became ill. Those that hadn’t eaten the spotted
jellies felt fine. The spotted critters must have been poisonous!
1. Place all 80 jelly beans back in the box.
2. When directed, begin searching for food for 20 seconds.
3. Avoid the poisonous jelly beans. If you pick up a poisonous
jelly bean (red spotted), you must stop and skip the rest of your
meal.
4. Record the number and type of jelly beans found for each
crewmember in the breakfast chart for part II.
5. Place all jelly beans back in the box to simulate moving to a
new location
6. Repeat the procedure again for dinner.
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DATA: Part II – Mimicry
Breakfast
Jelly bellicus Color
Team
Member
TOTALS
Dinner
Jelly bellicus Color
Team
Member
TOTALS
Analysis- Part II
NOTE: fill in the blanks when viewing Powerpoint 
There are many strategies that have evolved which help organisms survive – these
are known as ________________________.
 One strategy is to create the effect of being part of the natural surroundings in
order to conceal oneself from predation (or to hide from prey). This strategy is
known as: _____________________
Example:
 Another survival strategy is to possess a __________, or other substance, which
makes you poisonous or otherwise ____________.
Example:
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 Additionally, many unpalatable/ poisonous organisms showcase this by
developing bright colorations to warn away potential predators. This survival
strategy is known as: ___________________________
Example:
 Other species often evolve that take advantage of the strategy employed by the
‘model’ (the unpalatable or poisonous species) by closely resembling the
unpalatable species (using similar colorations and/or markings). This survival
strategy is known as: ___________
Give an example of:
Batesian mimicry:
Mullerian mimicry:
Analysis questions:
1. In the activity, which Jelly bellicus were employing
a. cryptic coloration?
b. aposematic coloration?
2. There was both a poisonous ‘model’ and a mimic in part II.
a. Which version of Jelly bellicus is the model?
b. Which version of Jelly bellicus is the mimic?
3. What advantage does the mimic have?
4. What consequence does the existence of the mimic have on the model?
5. What type of mimicry (Batesian or Mullerian) does this simulation represent?
Explain.
EC stamps! Find another example of mimicry used in nature.
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Part III: Population shift
Captain Dan and his crew were stranded for months. As time went on,
the Jelly bellicus population began to change. Some of the organisms
seemed to thrive and reproduce, while others became scarce, and some
disappeared completely. Overall, it was becoming more difficult to find
food. Captain Dan and his crew had to find something else to eat if they
were going to survive. They eventually found other food sources, but
still enjoyed Jelly bellicus when they were able to find them.
1. Place the 80 jelly beans in the box and mix in.
2. When directed, search for food for 30 seconds.
3. Record the number and type of jelly beans consumed in the generation
1 chart below.
4. This time DO NOT return the collected jelly beans to the box. Instead,
put collected jelly beans back in the bag. They have been ‘consumed’
and are no longer part of the gene pool.
5. Determine the number and type of survivors left in the box.
(Remember: generation1 started with 10 of each color, so to find the
number of survivors, subtract the number consumed from 10.)
6. Assume that the survivors live and reproduce. For each pair of
survivors left in the box, add 2 more jelly beans of the same type. If
you have an odd number of survivors, round down. Example: 8
survivors = 4 pairs = 8 offspring
7 survivors = 3 pairs = 6 offspring
7. Repeat the procedure two more times to simulate the next 2
generations. To determine the survivors for generations 2 and 3,
subtract the number of consumed jelly beans from the ‘new total’ in
the previous generation.
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DATA – Part III
Generation 1
Jelly bellicus Color
Total
consumed
by whole
crew
Number of
survivors
(10 – #
consumed)
Number of
offspring
(instructions
step 6)
New total
(survivors +
offspring)
Generation 2
Jelly bellicus Color
Number
consumed
Number of
survivors
Number of
offspring
New total
(survivors +
offspring)
Generation 3
Jelly bellicus Color
Number
consumed
Number of
survivors
Number of
offspring
New total
(survivors +
offspring)
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Analysis – Part III
1. Did any of the populations become extinct (disappear from the
box altogether)? Is so, which ones? Did any of the populations
become endangered (less than 4 left after generation 3)? If so,
which ones?
2. Which population increased the most? What was the main
reason for their success?
3. Overall, the Jelly bellicus genetic diversity has declined. How
might this affect the future of the jelly bean population?
4. In the natural world, the environment is constantly changing.
How might your results change if we had instead used green or
cedar (dark red) bedding as the ‘environment’?
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Extensions
Part IV: Affects of the introduction of a new species
Captain Dan and his crew were successfully rescued when a ship passed by the
island and saw their S.O.S. signal. This was fortunate for the Jelly bellicus
population who had nearly been wiped out by this new invader. If they hadn’t
been rescued, Dan and his crew may have eliminated early all of the Jelly Bellicus
from the island.
1. Explain how an ecosystem can change with the introduction of a new species
(such as the introduction of Dan and his crew to the island)?
2. Describe at least 2 ways that humans impact ecosystems, and thus the process
of natural selection, in the real world.
Part V: Hardy-Weinberg extension
1. Suppose that spots on a Jelly Bellicus represent a recessive trait. If you started
with 20 total Jelly bellicus and only 5 of them had spots, how many of the
dominant Jelly Bellicus would be heterozygous for the trait? How many would
be homozygous dominant?
2. Suppose that predators avoid the spotted Jelly Bellicus so that they grow in
numbers and the plain ones begin to die off. The spotted Jelly Bellicus comprise
64% of the total population. How many Jelly Bellicus would there be if you have a
total of 25 organisms? How many plain Jelly Bellicus would be carriers of the
spotted gene?
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