ADI: Adaptive Coloration

How does protective coloration affect survival success from predators?

Examples:

Your Task:You and your group will perform an investigation to determine the effect of an adaptation (protective coloration) on survival from predators.

Materials:

Skittles-represents prey in varying colors in populationConstruction paper -represents different environmentsPredator Goggles

Safety Precautions: determine if anyone in your group has any food allergies, all group members need clean hands. Do NOT wear predators goggles unless seated and performing your experiment.

Procedure:

1. Select one person to be your predator-this person will wear the goggles when during the experiment

2. Use blue, red, green and yellow environments (construction paper)3. Place all skittles on one of the environments in a single layer4. Predator will wear goggles and collect all the skittles they can in 15 seconds-timed by group members5. After collection, group will count and record the skittle colors and numbers6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each color environment

(construction paper)7. If time, repeat entire experiment with another

predator.

Hypothesis:

Discuss with your group what you expect to find from your experiment and explain your reasoning

Sample Data Table

Environment Color

#of ____(color) skittles

#of ____(color) skittles

#of ____(color) skittles

#of ____(color) skittles

Predator Name ________________