Activity 4: Let’s Have Fun with Finch!

Directions: Analyze and perform the procedures below. Then answer the questions that
follow.
Materials:
• 4 Paper cups or small bowls
• 1 cup of the following:
− Marbles or round small stones/pebbles
− Rice
− Mung beans (munggo)
• 1 piece of:
− Spoon
− Fork
− Tweezer
− Clothespin
• Stopwatch
• Cellphone for documentation

Procedures:
• Imagine yourself on an island. You are a bird called a finch.
• With your siblings, cousins, or parents, you will need four members to complete this
activity.
• Each of the four members will be a finch on an island with a different type of beak ( spoon,
fork, tweezers, and clothespin).
• Place the same amount of marbles or round small stones/pebbles at each table, spreading
it out evenly.
• When you are all ready, each finch will 'eat' as much food as he/she can using his/her
specific beak (spoon, fork, tweezers, and clothespin) within one minute.
• Rule: Each 'beak' can pick up one food item at a time and must place it in his or her
stomach (paper cup or small bowl) before getting a new food item.
• Do the same process, using rice for the second round and mung beans for the third.
Note: This is a fun activity that will make you bond with your family.
Remember to document this activity using your cellphone or gadget. The photos and/or
videos will be sent to your teacher through e-mail/gdrive.

Fill out the table for the results:

Finch Beak Type Number of Number of Rice Number of
Marbles/Pebbles Eaten Mung beans
Eaten Eaten
1 Spoon 30 30 21
2 Fork 18 26 18
3 Tweezers 7 34 33
4 Clothespin 17 32 31
 Average 18 30.5 25.75

Guide Questions:
1. Which of the finches ate the most number of:
 Marbles/Pebbles – Spoon
 Rice – Tweezers
 Mung Beans – Tweezers

2. What can you conclude about relationship between the type of beak a finch has and its
ability to eat food?
- The amount of food that each species of bird can eat depends on the type of the beak it
has. There are finches that can have an advantage when collecting food because it can be
easier for them to get the materials, while the others will have a hard time on collecting
the food because the materials doesn’t match their type of beak.

3. Suppose a natural calamity hit the island, what do you think will happen if:
a. Only marbles/pebbles remained because a hurricane destroyed the environment for the
other food sources to survive.
- If there will only be marbles/pebbles remaining in the environment, the finch represented
by the spoon will have a major advantage because it is easier for it to collect food with its
beak. On the other hand, the other finches will be mostly affected because the only food
that will be left on their environment is not compatible enough with the beaks that they
have.

b. Only rice grows due to excessive rain and moisture.

- The amount of rice grains collected by each beak are almost the same but it was still
difficult for the others to gather them. The finch represented by the tweezers has the most
advantage when collecting the rice grains.

c. Everything grows by some miracle.

- If every food source grows in the environment, every specie of finch will have an equal
chance to survive because they can eat the food that suits their beaks the most.

Conclusion:
 Use what you've learned from this activity to come up with a definition for “natural
selection”. (Use the follow-up questions below to construct your answer.)
 How did different environments 'select' for certain beaks?
 What will happen to the birds that are no longer well suited to eat the type of food
on the island provides?
Answer:
Based on what I’ve observed when performing this activity, the different species of
finch represented by the different materials have a specific type of food that can be
easily eaten by their beaks. Not all the food sources are compatible with the beak of
some finches and it will be hard for them to collect the food they will need in order for
them to survive. When a different specie of bird is not suited in an environment, they
have to adjust to their surroundings and accept the available resources for them to live.
Upon analyzing the given results, we can say that natural selection is a process wherein
a specific organism that can easily adjust to an environment has a higher chance of
survival rate than those organisms who cannot adapt to their environment. In order for
them to survive, they will have to adjust themselves to their environment which
becomes they main reason why some organisms tend to evolve.