EV2.5: Time is of the Essence

Previous Quest: 
Summary: 

Bring your plumebill data back to Dar and put it together into a timeline to explain what you've found. Then help Dar figure out how the data can help her stop Antiokos from ruining the plumebills' lives.

Recommendations: 

This is the final quest in this line that looks at evolution over time. This set of quests can be used to have players look at how long evolutionary change can take. The in-game questions particularly ask about whether the plumebills could “stretch if they wanted to”. The quest does not specifically talk about Lamarck and there is no mention passing traits down. The focus is on evolution over a long period of time and not inheritance of traits.

Learning Objectives: 
  • Understand that adaptation takes place over very long periods of time
Connecting Questions: 
  1. How many years did it take the plumebills to evolve their current neck length?
  2. Why was it important to collect data from many different time points?
  3. What are other examples of artifacts that scientists could collect that might tell them about evolutionary change?
  4. Discuss Lamarck’s theory and how it can be disproven.
  5. Have students start to discuss what traits they think are heritable and what is not (ex. If a student worked out and got very large muscles, would they definitely have a child with large muscles?)
Additional Resources: