View LESSON 4 Student Page

I am especially interested in the interplay between evolutionary, ecological, behavioral, and genetic factors, and how they affect geographic variation and the process of natural selection in natural populations. My interests lie largely in the region of overlap between evolution, ecology, behavior, and population/quantitative genetics. As can be seen by my publications, my approach is a mixture of theory, field observations, and experimental manipulation, in both field and laboratory. I am a theoretician in that I generate most of my hypotheses and predictions, but I am also an empiricist in that I like to test my predictions as soon as they are made.  

- John Endler
(from an online biography)

Students pretend they are a scientist like John Endler in this Web activity. They visit his pools, form hypotheses, and test them out. In the process, they learn about natural selection and sexual selection.

Procedure

1. 

Distribute, or have students print the Flashy Fish: Data form (pdf) and the Flashy Fish: Discussion Questions (pdf).

2. 

Review the major components of natural and sexual selection with the students.

3. 

4. 

Ask students to follow the instructions on the Student Page. Encourage them to conduct more than one experiment to support their hypothesis.

5. 

Use the Discussion Questions to frame a classroom discussion of the experiment. Be sure to discuss the interplay between selection factors in the population of Endler's wild guppies.