Bird and Beak

We've done all the notes we can on evolution.  Now we are going to experience the force that cause the phenomena.  Today's lab will allow the students to pick a beak type.  They will gather as much food as they can in 30 seconds.  The beak types that will be available to them will be a spoon, tweezers, clothespins, and toothpicks.  The food they will be available to them will be beads, popcorn, rice, cotton balls, and marshmallows.  They will put their food in a small vial.  As the game progresses only students who can collect a certain amount of food will survive.  Some beaks will be better suited to gather food than others.  On top of all that, there may come a drought or a fire that kills off a certain type of food.  If that happened to be the easiest food to gather then that beak may die.  It comes down to a last man/ woman standing situation.
Of course there are a few rules to this game.  First the students can only use one hand to work their respective beaks and the other hand must hold the vial while the vial remains on the table.  The second rule is that only one piece of food can be gathered at a time.  The lab can be printed off here.
This is a fun game.  Food flies everywhere but it illustrates survival of the fittest.

Today's start up is "What is the main source of evidence scientists use to support evolution?"

These are the 11 finches Darwin originally studied on the Galapagos Islands