Monday:
Read Chapter 6, section 3. Answer the section review questions
Squirrel Island: Major project. Began working on Friday. Due tomorrow.
Blending butterfly data
Tuesday:
Finish and present Squirrel Island Project. Early dismissal today.
Squirrel Island:
Purpose: To explain how adaptations help organisms survive in different environment
Background Information: Mutations are random changes in the genetic information of an organism. They cause new traits in an organism. Most are harmful, but a few are neutral or even beneficial. There are two main types of genetic mutations: a point mutation and a frame shift mutation. In a point mutation, one of the bases (chemicals) in the chain of DNA is replaced by a different base. In a frame shift mutation, one base pair is "deleted,"
so it throws off the DNA sequence, leading to different proteins that are usually useless or harmful. A beneficial or neutral mutation can quickly become harmful when the
environments change. The environment greatly affects an organism’s ability to survive, and even a small change can be harmful to some organisms.
Some examples:
• The panda’s "thumb" is actually an enlarged bone of the wrist. In the panda’s environment, bamboo is the main food source. It is difficult to handle and break the hard stalks, so an enlarged wrist bone helps to grasp the bamboo. In another environment where the food source is not plants, an extra ‘finger’ would have little benefit, perhaps even be cumbersome. The mutated hands of pandas have been beneficial only because of their need for a better grip on bamboo.
• The kokapo is a strange flightless parrot that lives in the brush on the mountains of New Zealand. Before man reached its shores, the island was almost mammal-free, with no ground predators of birds. As a result, the many ground dwelling birds lost the ability to fly, because there was no need. Their wings are small and useless. When man did come they brought mammals, such as cats and weasels. The kokapo
was easy prey for them, and is now nearly extinct. This happened to several other birds, including the kiwi. These birds inability to fly quickly caught up to them when the environment changed, showing how their mutation of bad wings was harmful in different environment.
• The penguin has a similar situation, living in the waters of Antarctica and surrounding places. They have evolved into flightless birds that are cumbersome and ineffective on land, but are masters of the water. In Antarctica, the sea is the best place to get food, so that is where the penguin has hunted. It has gradually lost its ability to fly, attained huge amounts of insulating blubber, and gained mutated legs that are great for swimming and terrible for walking. If the penguin was not in the environment it is so well suited for, it would be very vulnerable and
helpless. The mutations that have helped it survive in Antarctica would quickly become useless in a place like the grasslands or mountains. In an environment without water nearby, mutated wings and legs suited for swimming are useless.
Materials: Drawing Paper and Colored Pencils
Procedure:
1. Put your name on the back of the drawing paper.
2. Use a PENCIL
3. You will be assigned an island habitat.
4. Design a squirrel that has adapted to the environment of the island (beneficial mutations).
5. Draw the island environment and the squirrel.
6. On the back of your drawing, describe the adaptations, and why they are beneficial to the squirrel.
7. Neatness and attention to detail matters!
