Artifact - Woolybooger Activity

 

The artifact I have chosen for this unit is called the The Woolybooger Activity, as it represents evolution. Mother nature shows how older species over a certain period of time they start to develop into new species with more complex characteristic traits. Many forces often causes these changes to species but most importantly nature has the biggest influence. Nature causes species to change and adapt to different environments in order to survive. Charles Darwin theory was that natural selection, chooses the organisms with advantageous traits and will have a higher chance of surviving and reproducing. According to the environment, natural selection is a slow process. On earth, humans and other species are affected by natural selection as it is currently happening and we are continually changing to survive.

 

This artifact is based on the activity that was conducted in class. This woolybooger activity, contained 4 species of the same animal known as the Woolybooger. Each tool that is being used has distinctive different mouths used to pick up the beans. In this ecosystem, the woolybooger species are the predators and the beans are they prey. Each woolybooger species have different mouths which are the clothespin, tweezer, popsicle stick and a toothpick. All of these species are competing with each other to see who can survive the longest. The main objective of this activity is to examine which mouth feature would benefit the woolybooger species. This activity also shows Darwin's theory of natural selection, of how it works with the woolyboogers.

 

The significance of this activity shows evolution and natural selection plays a crucial role for species to survive. From the following activity it is clear that the clothespin, this mouth feature would make the woolybooger species survive longer and also reproduce with this advantageous trait. Unlike the other mouth features, this clothespin helps the predator eat more beans at once, since the mouth is wider and deeper. Having this advantageous trait, other species will not be able to compete, as there is two possible results, they either become extinct or evolve over time with this new trait to help them survive longer. The following activity helps students have a greater knowledge on how evolution works because it feels like a real life simulation, as students are able to notice what is occurring in the real world. Students are able to understand what causes the species to evolve and to continue to survive.

 

Natural selection shows how advantageous traits will be seen in more offsprings over a period of time, as it will eventually become more common. So in this case, over a period of time we will see mostly all woolybooger species will have the clothespin mouth feature, as it helps them eats more beans to survive longer. As this trait will be carried on from this generation to the next since it helps them live. From this activity, students can make educated guesses of what is happening around the world, as they can make an educated guess on which species are endangered. Students can give reasonable answers to figure out, what impacts do the environments play on the species in an ecosystem. For example, there are new types of mushrooms every year, some which are poisonous, and others that are edible. What I have learned from this unit, can be applied to this problem, as a student can go outside and determine the environmental conditions of a mushroom population and to study which mushrooms are changing for the following reasons. Possibly to survive, as it can be an advantageous trait that is caused by natural variations in a population of mushrooms. Evolution is shown in this activity because students can realize how natural selection actually works, and how the environment chooses favorable traits for species to survive longer.