James Smith & Amy Lark
Two important characteristics used to describe a population are the average fitness of the individuals that make up that population and the population size. In this exercise, students determine whether these characteristics are affected by mutation rate and, if so, in what ways.
Key concepts
- Population dynamics
- Mutation rate
- Adaptation
Recommended use
This lesson works well when the instructional goal is to move from individual cases to population-level interpretation and comparison.
What students do
- compare population outcomes under different mutation-rate settings
- interpret population size and average-fitness patterns
- discuss how mutation rate can influence adaptation at the population level