#Rock pocket mouse worksheet full#

You can assume that environmental conditions do not change over the 100 years.Ĥ.  a prediction that describes what the population will look like 100 years in the future.  an explanation of what caused the changes, and  a description of how the population has changed over time, Write a scientific summary that describes changes in the rock pocket mouse populations at location B. Why didn’t this phenotype become more common in theģ. Explain the presence of dark-colored mice at location A.

Remember that “fitness” is defined by an organism’sĪbility to survive and produce offspring.Ģ. Explain why a rock pocket mouse’s color influences its overall fitness. You may recordĪll of your data for each time period (A and B) on one bar graph or split A and B and make two graphs.ġ. Be sure to provide an appropriate title for the graph, and titles and labels for the x- and y-axes. Use colored pencils to prepare a bar graph based on the data that shows the distribution of the mice at locations A and B Once you are satisfied that you are correct, fill out the data table below using the counts you recorded above theĥ. Using what you learned by watching the film, check the order in which you arranged the illustrations. What can explain the differences among the illustrations?Ĥ. What role does the rock pocket mouse play in the desert food web? How does this trait affect the survival of the mice in different environments? Why are some mice light colored and some mice dark colored?ĭoes fur color provide any selective advantage or disadvantage?  What specific trait did researchers study in this investigation? Answer the following as you watch the film: You arranged the illustrations is correct. Watch, look for an explanation for the differences among the illustrations that will help you confirm that the order in which Watch the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s short film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation. Positioned the others in the sequence as you did.ģ. Explain how you decided which illustration represents the most recent rock pocket mouse population and why you Indicate your order in the spaceīelow: _Ģ. Place the illustrations in what you think is the correct order from oldest to most recent.

Shows the color variation at two different locations, A and B, at a particular moment in time. The illustrations (The teacher passed out) represents snapshots of rock pocket mouse populations. Volcanic rocks that formed from cooling lava flows are found, separated by several kilometers of light- colored substrate. Most of the landscape consists of light-colored sand and rock, but patches of dark Materials, that make up the desert floor. There are also two major colors of substrate, or surface There are twoĬommon varieties-a light-colored variety and a dark-colored variety. You can find populations of rock pocket mice all over the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States. Rock pocket mice, however, have had an enormous Grams, this tiny mouse weighs about as much as a handful of paper clips. Student handouts are half sheet in length.Īttached to the end of the student handout are the rock pocket mouse trap data cards and traps (fold in half and staple to make a simple envelope for carrying the trap data cards.Name _ĬOLOR VARIATION OVER TIME IN ROCK POCKET MOUSE POPULATIONSĪ typical rock pocket mouse is about 170 millimeters long from nose to rump, shorter than an average pencil.

#Rock pocket mouse worksheet full#

This assignment requires group work and discuss as well as full class and individual work. Students will then graph the data provided.Īfter discussing their conclusions, students will view and interact with the HHMI website video (linked to the PPT) of “The Making of the Fittest” and respond to questions about the actual cause of the rock pocket mouse change over time. The trap data has been mixed up and the students need to try to find a logical chronological order for it and explain their reasoning. This assignment requires students to take the roles of scientists and use traps at two simulated locations to determine what is happening to the populations of dark coated and light coated mice.

The Rock Pocket Mice of southwestern United States have demonstrated a very clear and interpretable case for microevolution.