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One hands on activity that may work (although 5 is a bit young) is to do the

following.



Start with a group of people.  Give equal numbers of people different tools

(straws, spoons, forks, chopsticks).  Place a large handful of beans or beads on

the table or floor.  Tell everyone to pick up as many of the beans/beads using

only their tool.  Count the numbers of items picked up by each person and rank

performance.  The half that picked up the most are said to have survived via

natural selection and the bottom half didn't survive.  Everyone that survived

"reproduces" such that one of the unsuccessful people takes a duplicate tool of

the sucessful person (this is nice since everyone gets to participate every round

even if they were originally stuck with a useless tool).  Go through a few

iterations/lifetimes.  Some tools should be more sucessful than others and

therefore are more represented in the final population.  Make sure that people

understand that the different tools represent different body types (ie like

different beak types in birds) and the number of beads collected represent the

animals ability to obtain food.



Good luck



--Kristy









On Thu Feb  3  7:23 , Wayne Watson <[log in to unmask]> sent:



>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers

>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.

>*****************************************************************************

>

>We are preparing a small evolution exhibit for our museum, and one of the 

>people there if I knew of any activity on the topic. I think since she 

>works with young children, 5-10, that she was thinking of some sort of 

>hands-on activity. Any ideas?

>-- 

>              Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)

>                  (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)

>                   Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

>

>                       Most vehicle/deer accidents occur at sunset.

>                          Vehicle deer whistles are ineffective.

>

>                         Web Page: 

>

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