Hunger Games Lab Conclusion

1. In this lab, we simulated natural selection with our class. The way that we simulated natural selection and evolution was we had all of our students circle up around the big circle on the field. There were corks that were spread out around the circle and when the whistle was blown all the students ran into the center to try and get as much food as possible so that they can reproduce. The different bird beaks that we used were the knucklers, the pinchers and the stumpys.

2. I think that the best phenotype for capturing food was the pincher because they could pick food up with their index and thumb, while the knucklers had to pick up food in between the second knuckles of their index and middle fingers. The stumpys had to pick up food with their wrists. The reason that the pincher was the best was because they had to easiest time trying to pick up food, and also they could pick up multiple corks at once. 

3. I think that the population did evolve because the species that could pick up food the fastest and in great amounts would look more like the population over time. The reason that I know this was because of the fact that the allele frequency of the "a" allele, which was the pincher allele, was more apparent later in time. In trial 8, which was our last trial, the frequency of the "a" allele was 72% while the "A" was 28%. However, in round 1, there was 52% percent allele frequency of the "A" allele and the 48% allele frequency for the "a" allele. The reason for this was because the pinchers and the knucklers had an easier time of getting food to reproduce, so their alleles were more common.

The Allele Frequency of the "A" and "a" allele. The red is the "a" allele and the blue is the "A" allele.

4. Before the simulation started, everyone was given their own bird beak trait and they could only pick up food using the technique that they were assigned. This was the factor that was not random. Some factors that are random include the speed and quickness of the students and the size of the storage for the amount of food that they pick up. These traits are random because these traits vary for every student.
5. Results would have indeed varied if there was more food or less food. If there was more food, then the knucklers and the pinchers would have dominated the population even more because they will pick up the food more efficiently, making all of the stumpys have a lower chance of survival. If there is a shortage in food, then there would be the same problem for the stumpys. The lower amount of food will cause a problem for all species, but the stumpys will have the biggest problem. In nature, there are always going to be times when there are shortages in food, or an abundance in food. The species that live in these areas will need to fight for food more because of the change in the amount of food.
6. Without incomplete dominance, there would be no knucklers. There would only be pinchers and stumpys. Slowly, the pinchers would take over the population because the stumpys would not be able to reproduce fast enough and they would slowly die out.
7. The relationship between evolution and natural selection is that natural selection is the process that leads to a population's evolution. The reason for this is because natural selection weeds out the bad traits, so that only the good traits can reproduce. Then evolution takes place, because then the good alleles would fill up the population, changing the allele frequency.
8. A strategy that individuals used was that they carried out sexual selection. Sexual selection is when organisms from the same species mate with each other, even though there is no benefit to the offspring. For example, the knucklers mated with only knucklers, even though mating with pinchers would give the offspring a higher chance a better trait. This would have affected the allele frequency because then there would be more "a" alleles in the population over time, which would change the allele frequency over time.
9. In evolution, the thing that evolves is the population. Natural Selection acts on the phenotypes of the organisms, because the phenotype is the one that helps or does not help the organism pick up food. Evolution acts on the genotype because evolution looks like the organisms that can reproduce the most and the ones that can reproduce the most are the ones with the better phenotype. So, this affects the genotype of the offspring.