1. Bean Bunny Evolution
CREST
March 15, 2016

2. Which bunny will survive the cold Indiana winters?

3. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
How does natural selection affect gene frequency over several generations? What will happen to the F and f alleles in rabbits over 5 generations?

4. Biology refresher before we begin…..
Natural Selection – process by which organisms best-suited to their environmental conditions are most likely to survive and reproduce
Gene – section of a chromosome that contains information coding for that trait
Allele – one of two or more alternating forms of a gene
Gene frequency – how often the different alleles of a gene occur
Evolution – on a genetic level is a change in frequency of alleles in a population over a period of time

5. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
Allele Letter
Allele for
Allele type F
Fur
Dominant f
No fur
Recessive

6. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
Possible mating combinations FF
homozygous
dominant
Fur Ff
heterozygous ff
homozygous recessive
No Fur

7. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
How does natural selection affect gene frequency over several generations? What will happen to the F and f alleles in rabbits over 5 generations? With a partner create a hypothesis from this opening lab question

8. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
If rabbits with F (fur) and f (no fur) alleles mate for 5 generations, then the gene frequency of F alleles will increase and the gene frequency of f alleles will decrease.

9. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
Using simple materials, how could we design an experiment to test our hypothesis?

10. Today’s experiment
Red beans – F allele for fur White beans – f allele for no for Paper bag – Indiana fields, setting for rabbits mating Paper plates – mating results

11. Today’s procedure Place red and white beans in brown bag
Select 2 beans at a time
Place pair in appropriate plate (FF, Ff, ff)
Record number of pairs in data chart for first three columns
Safety – don’t eat/throw the beans!

12. Trial run from the chief engineer
11 pairs
11 pairs
28 pairs
SET ASIDE

13. Trial run from the chief engineer
Let’s get some materials and take data for 5 trials!

14. Graphing Graph, graph and graph!!
Superb life skill – graphs are everywhere!
Graphing mechanics
Scatter plots
Best fit lines
Analyzing trends
Direct/indirect relationships

15. Scientific Argumentation
“CLEVER”
CLaim - make statement about experiment
EVidencE – use data, graphs to explain
Reasoning – explain how evidence supports the claim

16. Analysis Questions and Assessment
Ramp up the rigor with a high level of questioning
Question students as they collect and graph data
Consider having check points in data collection
Does this data make sense?
Do you see any trends?
Lesson assessment is AP style questioning, application of lab learnings

17. Successes and Challenges
Reflect for a few moments on the successes and challenges of implementing this lesson in a classroom…
You can use this reflection technique with your students

18. “Bean Bunny Evolution”
Lesson Objective –
Model evolution by natural selection of the gene frequency in two alleles in a population of organisms
Calculate and graph gene frequency
Connection to AP Biology – genetics, process of evolution
Great math applications!

19. You do make a difference!!!
THANK YOU!
You do make a difference!!!