Teaching Natural Selection using Clamys sweetus From Home

Last year, in my Honors Biology class, I discovered HHMIs Variations in the Clam Species Clamys sweetus lab. We gave it a try and loved it. I wanted to do it again this year, even though we were teaching/learning from home. I emailed a request to parents to purchase a small bag of m&ms and Reese's Pieces if they were willing and there weren't any allergies. I was hoping that at least a few of my students would have them and I also bought some so that I could add to the data if nothing else. 

I do have at least one student with peanut allergies this year, while last year I didn't have any nut allergies in the class, so last year I could do it with a little less caution. It would be possible to skip the part of the lab that involves the Reese's Pieces, but so far I've been able to do it. 

Most of my students had m&ms on lab day, and I just made sure that zoom had them in breakout rooms that included at least one person that also had Reese's Pieces. 

One difficulty with doing this lab at home is that the lab document itself is in PDF form, but I needed it to be in a more easily editable form for my students to do on their computers. I decided to convert the lab into a google doc. It took forever, but I'm happy with the result and will have it ready to go next year whether we are in school or virtual. One element I added were answer boxes. They are so much easier to type into, versus some of the converted documents that still had lines that students couldn't type on and would need to erase. 

I also made a Google slides presentation with data for them, since most students do not have scales that measure to hundredths of grams. I also added pictures of the "clams" by rulers to get a size idea and a comparison of height. My final addition was a shared Google sheet were each group added their data so all students could see the data and answer questions that asked about class data. 

As I am finding for everything we do virtually, it took longer than anticipated, but students really enjoyed it and understood natural selection a little better afterwards. I did skip part C for the sake of time, but if we're in school next spring, I'll add that part in as well since I love giving students an opportunity to put together an experiment. One other part of the document that I think I'd like to change in the future is the bar graph for part 2. I think next year, I'll have them make the graph in Google Sheets, since it can be more accurate than filling in the boxes.

Here are links to the lab documents:

Clamys sweetus Student Lab

Clamys sweetus Slide Presentation with data

Clamys sweetus Class Data