Page 177 - Big Ideas Year 10 sciPAD 2025

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SCIPAD - BIG IDEAS - BOOK 2
THE BASIS OF HEREDITY
7. Outline what would happen if there were no predators in the forests. Would the colours of
the moths change over time? 

8. Explain the concept of ‘natural selection’ using Peppered Moths as an example.





9. To test some the findings of the scientists, a student decided to conduct an experiment.
The student cut out 50 moth shapes from plain white paper. Another 50 moth shapes were
cut out of spotted paper, as shown below.
Firstly, all 100 moth shapes were randomly scattered on a large piece of plain white paper.
Another student was given chopsticks and ask to pick up as many moths as they could
in 60 seconds. In the second part of the investigation all 100 moth shapes were randomly
scattered on spotted paper. The chopstick wielding ‘predator’ was then asked to select
as many moths as they could over the same time period. The results of this experiment are
shown below.
Starting population Final population
Background Trial White Spotted White Spotted
Plain white 1 50 50 35 8
Plain white 2 50 50 34 10
Plain white 3 50 50 36 8
Spotted 1 50 50 12 34
Spotted 2 50 50 9 37
Spotted 3 50 50 7 31
(a) Write a brief conclusion for this investigation. 



(b) Outline what this investigation may show about how predators select prey. 


(c) Suggest why chopsticks were used to capture ‘prey’. 


50 moths cut from plain white paper. 50 moths cut from spotted paper.
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