Survival Rivals

I'm a Worm, Get Me Out of Here

How does colour affect a creature's chance of survival?

In this practical experiment, students feed birds with cooked spaghetti worms. The worms are dyed different colours using food colourings, then left in an appropriate place outdoors for birds to feast on. Students monitor the numbers of worms that survive, and at regular intervals breed them – using a simple formula to calculate how many worms of each colour will be in the next generation. In this way, over time, they simulate directional selection.

What happens when the students change the background that the worms are placed on? The location of the test area? The size of the worms? Your free kit will contain everything you need to run this experiment in your school.

Brine Date

What factors determine a brine shrimp's choice of mate?

In your tank of brine shrimp students will think they can easily spot the mating pairs. In fact, while either sex may have singled out the other to be their partner, they are not necessarily mating. Instead the males are guarding the females to prevent any other males mating with them.

By observing the brine shrimp students will distinguish the sexes and work out ways to investigate the phenomenon of mate-guarding. For example, do larger females pair with larger males? This experiment will encourage them to test their hypotheses. Your free kit will contain everything you need to run this experiment in your school.

The X-Bacteria

How can antibiotic resistance be transferred between bacteria?

One way is through conjugation, the process in which DNA is transferred between cells via a special sex pilus or tube. In this practical protocol students investigate how this happens.

Students will mate samples of two strains of E. coli bacteria, each of which contains a resistance to a different antibiotic. After incubation, students will be able to see if resistance has been transferred during conjugation.

Your free kit will contain everything you need to run this experiment in your school.

Introduction

Hands-on experiments, inspired by Darwin, plus free online resources for schools.

There are three kits in the series:

• I'm a Worm, Get Me Out of Here (exploring natural selection)
• Brine Date (looking at sexual selection)
• The X-Bacteria (investigating antibiotic resistance in bacteria)

Each kit contains everything teachers and students need to carry out the experiments in school. All the experiments are designed to help young people see for themselves how Darwin's ideas link to modern evolutionary principles and contemporary biomedicine.

Following on from Survival Rivals the Wellcome Trust are producing further experiment kits as part of a major initiative linked to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.