Name: Laiba K.

Date: 7/9/2024

Student Exploration: Rainfall and Bird Beaks

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.

Vocabulary: adaptation, beak depth, directional selection, drought, evolution, natural selection, range,
stabilizing selection

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

During the voyage of the HMS Beagle (1831–1836), the young Charles Darwin collected several species of
finches from the Galápagos Islands. Two of Darwin’s finches are shown below.

1. Which species do you think is best adapted to a diet of small, delicate seeds?
Explain why you think so.

geospiza fortis because it has a smaller beak.

2. Which species do you think is best adapted to a diet of large, tough-to-crack

seeds? Explain.

Geospiza magnirostris because it has a bigger beak so it’ll be

easier for the bird to break open seeds.

Gizmo Warm-up
Darwin’s finches are one of many types of animals on the Galápagos Islands
that have unique adaptations, or traits that help an organism survive in its
environment. The Rainfall and Bird Beaks Gizmo allows you to explore how
rainfall influences the range of beak shapes found in a single finch species.

1. The beak depth of a finch is the distance from the top of the beak to the
bottom, as shown.

A. What is the current average beak depth in the Gizmo? 10.21mm

B. Select the HISTOGRAM tab. Do all the finches have the same beak depth? no

2. Click Play ( ) and let the simulation play for five years with average rainfall (25 cm/yr). Select the
GRAPH tab and view the Finches vs time and Beak depth vs time graphs.

A. How does the finch population change? it decreased

B. Does the beak depth change significantly? not much but it does go down

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
 Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:
Normal years ● Click Reset ( ).

Introduction: The Galápagos Islands are very dry, with an average rainfall on some islands of only 12
centimeters per year. The amount of rainfall has a large impact on the abundance and types of seeds that are
available to be eaten by finches. In the process of natural selection, only the finches that are best adapted to
the available seed types survive and have offspring.

Question: How is the finch population affected by a period of average rainfall?

1. Observe: With the Rain sliders set to 25 cm, click Play, and then Pause ( ) after one year has passed.
Select the TABLE tab and look at the Month and Finches columns.

A. How did the finch population change over the course of one year?

it decreased from 1000-890

B. The finches have their young during the rainy season. Based on the table, which part of the year do
you think is the rainy season?

between the months of march till may.

2. Analyze: Click Reset, and choose the HISTOGRAM. The bars represent the numbers of finches that have
different beak depths. The range of beak depths is equal to the difference between the largest and
smallest beaks.

A. What is the average beak depth of the current finch population? 10.34

B. What is the range in beak depths in the population? 5

C. Do most of the finches have beak depths near the lower extreme, the middle, or the higher extreme
of the range?

its somewhere in the middle.

3. Experiment: Click Play, and observe the histogram as the simulation plays for five years.

A. What is the average beak depth now? 9.78

B. What is the current range of beak depths? 2

C. Based on what you have seen, are finches with very small, medium, or very large beaks most likely
to survive in times of normal rainfall? Justify your answer.

medium beaks since the average rainfall is 10.34 mm so medium, beaked finches
are most likely to survive with normal rainfall.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
 Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:
Drought ● Click Reset.

Introduction: In years of extreme drought, Galápagos plants don’t produce new seeds. The small, delicate
seeds get eaten up quickly, leaving behind only the largest, toughest seeds.

Question: How does drought affect the finch population and average beak depth?

1. Form hypothesis: What type of beak do you think will be best for finding food in a drought?

I believe that a bigger, stronger beak will be able to crack seeds during a drought much easier.

2. Predict: Select the HISTOGRAM tab. On the left side below, sketch the current histogram and list the
average beak depth and range of beak depths. On the right side, sketch what you think the histogram will
look like after five years of drought. Explain your prediction.

Initial beak depths Beak depths after 5 years (predicted)

Initial number of finches: 1000 Explanation:

Initial average depth: 10.5 I believe that the beak depth will
increase because they need bigger
Initial range of beak depths: 2 beaks to break open things.

3. Experiment: Use the sliders to set the Rain to 5 centimeters for each of the five years in the simulation.
Click Play, and wait for five years. Observe the beak of the finch.

A. How does the beak depth change over time? it decreases by alot

B. What is the final average beak depth? 13.38

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
 C. What is the final range of beak depths? 3

4. Describe: Compare the final histogram to the initial histogram. How have the finches been affected by
drought? Describe at least two changes that you notice.

the amount of finches decrease, and the beak depth increases from 10 to 13.

5. Analyze: Was the increase in the average beak depth caused by an increase in large-beaked finches or a
decline in small-beaked finches? Explain your answer.

a drop in small beaked finches, because the population decreased dramatically.

6. Draw conclusions: What do you think caused the changes in the finch population and average beak size
during the drought?

Some finches were not able to survive and find food during the drought, so drying off, and the ones that
did adapted had bigger beaks.

7. Interpret: Directional selection occurs when individuals at one end of a range are more likely to survive
than intermediate individuals or individuals at the opposite end of the range. Stabilizing selection occurs
when intermediate individuals are the most likely to survive.

Is directional selection, stabilizing selection, or both operating in this example? Explain.

directional because the small beaked finches were not able to survive and open the seeds, but the
bigger beaked finches were able to survive and open seeds.

8. Think and discuss: Evolution is the process by which populations of organisms can change over time.
How is directional selection related to evolution?

At first the small beaked finches were thriving, but because of the drought, they had to evolve to bigger
beaked finches or die off.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
 Activity C: Get the Gizmo ready:
Rainy days ● Click Reset.

Introduction: In years of abundant rainfall, there can be 50 centimeters or more of rain. In these years, plants
produce an enormous number and variety of seeds.

Question: How does plentiful rainfall affect the finch population and average beak depth?

1. Form hypothesis: What beak shape do you think will be best for finding food in a period of abundant
rainfall?

small beaked

2. Predict: Select the HISTOGRAM tab. On the left side, sketch the current histogram and list the average
beak depth and range of beak depths. On the right side, sketch what you think the histogram will look like
after five years of abundant rain. Explain your prediction.

Initial beak depths Beak depths after 5 years (predicted)

Explanation:
Initial number of finches: 1000
I believe that the beak depth will
Initial average depth: 10.04 decrease because the small seeds will
thrive, therefore bigger beaks are not
Initial range of beak depths: 4
necessary to survive.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
3. Experiment: Click Reset. Use the sliders to set the Rain to 50 cm for each of the five years in the
simulation. Click Play, and wait for five years. Observe the beak of the finch.
A. How does the beak depth change over time? it decreases

B. What is the final average beak depth? 7.48

C. What is the final range of beak depths? 3

4. Describe: Compare the final histogram to the initial histogram. How have the finches been affected by
abundant rain? Describe at least two changes that you notice.

the number of finches increased, and the depth of the beaks decreased.

5. Analyze: Was the decrease in the average beak depth caused by an increase in small-beaked finches or a
decline in large-beaked finches? Explain your answer.

increase in small beaked finches because they thrived in that environment.

6. Draw conclusions: What do you think caused the changes in finch population and average beak size during
the period of abundant rain?

because the rain caused smaller seeds to thrive, so the bigger beaks were unnecessary for survival,
therefore the smaller beaked finches were able to thrive in the rainy environment

7. Extend your thinking: Most scientists think that a small group of finches colonized the Galápagos Islands
thousands of years ago. They would have been the only seed-eating birds on the islands. Suppose one
island was very dry and another had plentiful rainfall.

A. How would the finch populations on these islands change over time?

The rainy island would have many many finches over time, while the drier island would have
finches dying off.

B. What might happen to the finch populations after millions of years?

They could increase by a lot on the rainy island because that is where they were able to
survive and eat plenty of food.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved