A Birds Eye View: Peppered Moth Activity

Black Peppered Moths in the 1800's were a familiar sight in England. The peppered moths that naturalists observed all looked similar and were usually found on lichen-covered tree trunks and rocks. Then, in 1845, one black specked moth was captured. This was the beginning of the industrial revolution in England. Because of the pollen, soot, and smoke from all the factories, the countryside became black and covered in ash.During this time more and more black peppered moths were found and the lighter peppered moths slowly declined. By 1950, very few light-colored moths could be found. They were easier to spot on the now soot covered surroundings leaving them ope for predation. The dark moths survived and now they are the common peppered moth species in England.

There are a lot of activities on line about this. http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/pepperedmoth.html as just one example of a virtual simulation. But I wanted to spice it up this year and have students use paper dots and newspaper to simulate live the predator prey circumstances of these moths. From a birds eye view so to speak. Of course they went in to it thinking this is easy. A pair of tweezers, thirty white and 30 speckled dots later and the results were not as high as they expected. Their numbers varied but the result was the same. Depending on background and coloration of moth, results varied. This was a fun day not even a dot left behind they cleaned up awesomely as well.