Biology Discussion

In this discussion forum, you will watch the whole video. Answer 6 questions and give feedback to 2 other students. Your feedback should include critical analysis. Saying good job or you like it is not acceptable feedback.

Please read the video summary below and answer the questions that follow in detail.

Broccoli, corn, a bouquet of flowers, your dog, and the hamburger you ate at lunch have something in common—they are examples of organisms undergoing evolution through the process of artificial selection. How you see those organisms today is not how they were thousands or even hundreds of years ago. Humans deliberately changed them by selecting only certain individuals to breed and pass on their genes. Over time, some traits become more prevalent in the population and some diminished, in other words, they evolved.

Evolution is a very tricky subject to understand because it can involve abstract ideas and processes not easily observed. It is impossible to see a living organism evolve in front of you, because individuals do not evolve, only populations, and over long periods of time. However, it is important to understand because the process has led to and will continue to affect every living organism on the planet.

This experiment attempts a feat not easily accomplished—documenting change in a population over time. While it is easy to see the end products of evolution such as more colorful flowers, different breeds of dogs, and cattle that produce more milk and meat, it is much more difficult to watch the process and understand why it happens.

Video Reflection

1. What was the most interesting part of the video?
2. What was something new you learned?
3. What are you confused about from the video.
4. Which part would you like to learn more about?
5. What follow-up observation or experiment would you like to do and how would you relate it to your life?
6. Do you think this experiment demonstrated evolution?

Reply 2 classmate:

(1)

1. What was the most interesting part of the video?

The quail eggs kind of threw me off. I’ve never seen anyone trying to show evolution through changing the color of eggs.

2. What was something new you learned?

Apparently quail eggs can undergo evolution in such a short time

3. What are you confused about from the video

The whole thing seemed pretty straightforward.

4. Which part would you like to learn more about?

What’s the craziest color an egg could turn into in order to camouflage to survive? (like how far could you push it)?

5. What follow-up observation or experiment would you like to do and how would you relate it to your life?

I wanna see if you can do the same experiment with other types of eggs.

6. Do you think this experiment demonstrated evolution?

Yes, it showed how the egg color changed in order to adapt to what works.

(2)

1. The most interesting part of the video to me is how after the last generation of quail eggs they really did change colors.

2. Something new I learned is that the color and design on the egg is an adaptation for survival by camouflage.

3. I’ confused about if the eggs being bigger at the end had anything to do with the experiment.

4. I would like to learn more about what quail eggs taste like.

5.I would like to see the same experiments but instead trying to make the quail eggs bigger.

6. It showed evolution well. Especially microevolution because it changed one specific trait.