And the Spoons Have It!

In Kathleen Dawson’s second grade science classes, it’s survival of the fittest.

Armed with their special “beaks” (represented by spoons, forks, or knives), second grade “birds” fanned out over a grassy area this week, looking for “bugs” (dried white, green, black or red beans), scooping them up, and placing them in their tummies (a paper cup).

When the students went back inside, they counted their bugs and charted the numbers. Which birds got the most bugs? Which bugs were the most likely to be spotted and scooped up?

Kathleen’s classes have been classifying animals all year, starting with amphibians and reptiles; this experiment is rounding out the end of their bird unit.

Students started the lesson making a hypothesis on which bugs and birds would be the most successful. Elliott said he thought the red bugs would be the least successful, “because they’re the biggest and easiest to spot,” he said.

So what happens to the birds that collect the least amount of food? And what about the beans? As the numbers add up for year 1, the students will repeat the experiment three more times. Students learned that the birds that collected the least amount of food would die out and then become offspring of the bird populations that collected the most. The bug populations also multiplied or dwindled based on how many of their species were eaten.

“This is a great, hands-on way for students to understand how populations change over time due to preferable adaptations in their environment—will they thrive, simply survive, or head towards extinction?” said Kathleen.

Students are gaining an understanding of natural selection as they all adapt to the changing landscape of their competition and food sources. “I’m glad I’m a spoon, because it is really the most successful,” said Amaya.