Nick Wojtalewicz

2/6/15
Human Origins MW 8:30
Nicks ePortfolio Report
While studying wildlife on the Galapagos Islands, Darwin noticed that from island to
island, the Galapagos finches showed differences in beak shape and size. He hypothesized that
the differences in beaks adapted to take advantage of the food in the finches particular
environments. Thin, sharp beaks prevailing where the finches main food was insects and grubs,
and large claw-shaped beaks where their diet was buds, fruit, and nuts. On each island the finch
population had somehow developed beaks which were suitable for that particular environment.
(http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/)
Since we couldnt go on a field trip to the Galapagos Islands during class, we did a virtual
experiment where some sort of item was used to pick up sunflower seeds in a matter of time. Out
of all the choices we had, I hypothesized that the tweezers would be the best virtual beak for the
job. I thought the tweezers would do the best because the other options were chopsticks, hair
clips, clothes pins, chip clips, and tongs. I thought the tweezers were the best candidate. So every
minute the class aggressively tried one at a time, filling their cup with sunflower seeds using
only the item they were given.
Here is a graph of the information gathered during the experiments:

In conclusion to the experiment, my hypothesis was close but wrong. Instead of the
tweezers being the best beak, like I predicted, the chip clip consistently beat the tweezers.
Possible outcome factors rely on the people using the beaks. When comparing beaks to chip clips
and tweezers, the results are obviously not going to be as accurate as they would be if we

captured birds and studied them for a couple of days. However the bird with the best beak gets
the most food.
I like to think that the scientific method is composed of six steps. The steps include
asking, researching, hypothesizing, experimenting, analyzing, and concluding. With these six
steps you can apply the scientific method to any real-world problem. Charles Darwin's Theory of
Evolution by Natural Selection says that more individuals are born each generation that can
survive. Phenotypic differences are found among people and the variation is heritable. The
individuals better suited to the environment will survive. The exercise we did in class shows the
theory of natural selection because different beaks call for different survival tactics and if you
have a weak beak youll more than likely have weak survival tactics.
Sources: http://www.truthinscience.org.uk , Melissas class.