Adaptation – Survival of the fittest

In our science lesson today, Mandela learnt about Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest and explored this in an experiment. Mandela investigated how the size and shape of a finch’s beak has evolved over generations to adapt to the type of food available in their varying environments. Using a range of tools to represent a finch’s beak, the children tried to pick up different types of bird food in different shapes and sizes. Mandela were trying to find out which type of beak would find it easiest to pick up different types of food. The children made predictions before the experiment and then presented their findings in a table, followed by a conclusion of their findings.

Mandela concluded that the smaller the beak, the smaller and weaker the type of food. Here are some pictures of our experiment: