Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection Of Species

Natural selection, a concept proposed by Charles Darwin in 1858, explains how evolution works and how and why species change over time. Natural selection is the idea that individuals in a species with certain characteristics that benefit their survival will be most likely to survive and pass on their genes to their offspring, thus, eventually causing the majority of the population to have that specific trait. Different and new alleles are caused by genetic mutations, and if the new phenotype helps the organism survive in its environment, it will be passed on and could spread to the entire species eventually.

This experiment used different utensils to model ways an organism could get food and how that would affect their population. There were 4 utensils we tested: A plastic fork, plastic spoon, plastic knife, and a pair of chopsticks. If a tool failed to move at least 10 beans into the other cup in 20 seconds (one “generation”,) then it went “extinct” and was replaced by the current most efficient utensil. It was predicted that the spoon would be the best at collecting food and the chopsticks would be the worst.

A person was given 20 seconds for each individual utensil to move as many beans as possible from the full cup to the empty one. Holding the cup in place was acceptable, as long as it was not lifted from the table. Any beans that fell on the table were considered null, and could not be counted in the number moved. The number of beans successfully moved to the second time within the time limit was recorded, and any utensils that did not meet the 10 bean minimum were discarded and replaced by the most efficient one of the previous round. This was repeated for 3 rounds, using the utensils that survived from the first round in the second, and likewise for the third