Investigation Design

Investigation Design Instructions and Rubric Your Task: Design an investigation to collect appropriate evidence to answer the guiding question:Why does (or doesn’t)

the frequency of a physical trait change in a rabbit population in differentenvironments? You can approach this question

in many different ways. There are multiple rabbit traits to focus on (fur color, tail length, teeth length) and many different

types of environments you could test (e.g. environments with and without predators, environments with or without food

limitation, environments with predators at the equator or arctic,and many more!). It is your job to determine what would be

appropriate and sufficient evidence to collect to support your answer to the guiding questionabove.

During Labs #10 and #11 you will have time to brainstorm with a classmate about different elements of the investigation

design, but each student will write up the investigation design assignment individually. By the due date on the course

calendar, you will individually submit an assignment in your own words via the Turnitin link under “Investigation Design” on

the main menu. Features of your design may be similar to a classmate’s if you brainstormed together, but the entire

assignment must be written individually and in your own words. Do not write your assignment in the same room asa

classmate and do not share your written assignment witha classmate. Write your procedure where indicated in Lab 12of the

lab manual or bring a copy of your investigation design to lab so that you can conduct your investigation during Lab #12! This assignment is 10% of your grade.Your investigation design must include sufficient detail that your TA could conduct

the same investigation after reading your assignment. You will be graded based on the rubric below. Your investigation design assignment will consist of the four sections outlined below and each section should address the following questions:

1. Introduction

a) Did you brainstorm with a classmate? If yes, who did you brainstorm with? b) What is the provided guiding question you are trying to answer with this investigation(it’s the same for everyone)?

c) Why is this an important orinteresting question to investigate? (Think about how this investigation connects to the

predictions about traits you made on the field tripin Lab #10.) 2. Experimental Design

a) How will you determine if the frequency of a trait in the population changes over time in different environments? b) What trait will you investigate? (e.g. fur color, tail length, or teeth length?)Why are you interested in this trait?

c) What different environments will you include in your design? (e.g. environments with and without predators,

environments with or without food limitation, environments with predators at the equator or arctic, etc.)Why did you decide to design you investigation this way?

d) There are other variables you can manipulate in the simulation that might influenc the biotic interactions (e.g. Which

allele is inherited as the dominant allele? Where do the rabbits live? When isa selection pressure first introduced?).

How will these variables be controlled or manipulated in your investigationtrials? Why did you make those decisions?

e) How many trials (or replicates) will you conduct? Why is the number of trials important?

f) For how many generations will you need to run the simulation during each trail?How did you determine this# of