Name

___________________________________________________

M&M Survival Activity

Date _________________________

1. Which color(s) of M&Ms survived the best? Why?






2. Lets say these M&Ms were actually living populations of individuals within a species. How does having 6 different
colors/phenotypes help the species to survive in this environment?







3. If you watched the population of these individuals over an extended amount of time (enough to see a few
generations), what would you expect the population colors/phenotypes to look like? Why?








4. If you, as a bird, did not have any natural predators in this environment, what would happen to your population
over time?





5. What would stop your population as a bird from growing to infinity?






6. How successful might your bird population be compared to another natural predator of M&Ms (lets say bears)?
Consider that a bird can lay as many as 14 eggs in a single nest, and a bear can have 2 cubs at a time.











Introduction:

The discovery of radioactivity in the 1800s allowed scientists to develop new methods of
determining absolute age of rocks. Since its not safe for us to handle radioactive isotopes, we will
use pennies to simulate radioactive decay. The box in this lab represents an imaginary rock.
Suppose that 100 heads-up pennies in your box represent atoms of Carbon-14. When Carbon-14
decays, it turns into Nitrogen (Nitrogen-14), which is stable (non-radioactive). By shaking the box
for 10 seconds, you will see that approximately half of the Carbon-14 atoms have decayed into
Nitrogen (pennies that are tails-up). Thus, 10 seconds is the half-life of our Carbon-14 (Note: in
reality, 10 seconds is not the real half-life of Carbon-14, but we use this amount of time in place of
a much longer time).

Materials: Box with lid, 100 pennies in a zip-loc bag.

Process:

1) Place 100 pennies heads-up in the box.
2) Close the box and shake it vigorously for 15 seconds
3) Remove and count stable Nitrogen atoms, then place them in the zip-lock bag.
4) Record in Table 1 the TOTAL number of Nitrogen decayed so far under the heading
Number of stable Nitrogen.
5) Record in Table 1 the number of Carbon-14 remaining in the box under the heading
Number of Radioactive Carbon-14.
6) After placing the Nitrogen atoms in the bag, close the bag and put the Nitrogen bag in the
box.
7) Repeat steps 2-6 three more times, recording the results each time. At this point, you will
have simulated 4 half-lives.

Data:

Number of Half-Lives
0
1
2
3
4

Number of Stable Nitrogen

Number of Radioactive Carbon























Prepare a graph using the box above by plotting the number of half-lives on the x-axis and the
number of radioactive Carbon-14s on the y-axis.

Reflection Questions:
With regularity, radioactive elements decay to stable non-radioactive elements at a steady rate.
Take Carbon-14 for example. Half the Carbon-14 will decay to stable Nitrogen every 5760 years.
Other radioactive isotopes take longer, such as Uranium-238. Over the course of its half-life, 4.5
billion years, half of its atoms will decay to non-radioactive Lead-206.

1. Describe the appearance of your graph. What kind of equation would you expect for the line?

2. If you had 600 atoms of Carbon-14, how many atoms would decay to stable Nitrogen in 3 halflives?

3. If 175 Carbon-14 remained from a sample of 2800, how many half-lives would have passed?




4. If you have a rock sample that has 1/8 of its original Carbon-14, how many half-lives have
passed? Based on Carbon-14s actual half-life of 5760 years, how old is this rock?



5. Carbon-14 can only be used to age rocks up to 50,000 years old. Other radioactive elements that
have a much older half-life are used to date older rocks and fossils. Why do scientists care about
the ages of rocks and fossils? How could knowing the age of fossils provide support for the idea
of diversification of species?








6. Think back to the M&M Survival activity. One of the factors in M&M survival was
environmental (or natural) selection. How could studying the fossil record help us see the
process of natural selection over a long period of time?









7. Weve talked about how we gain evidence for natural selection by looking at the fossil record.
How do you think natural selection can help explain our observations of the fossil record?









8. Scientists are tasked with classifying new species and redefining classifications of species
already identified. How can studying the fossil record assist scientists in this process?

[Other assessments are done on separate pieces of paper]