NAME: YEAR & STRAND: 11-STEM

-Althea Kia Del Rio DATE: 3/30/2021

-Jan Ray Visperas
TEACHER: MRS. MARICEL SORIANO
-Joshua Rouisse Visperas
-Lovely Calimlim
-Mitzi Sai Renzales
-Raven Untalan

EXPERIMENT #. 3 .

TITLE: Simulating the Evolutionary Advantages of Sexual Reproduction

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the advantages of sexual reproduction

MATERIALS:

 colored marbles/sticks (red, orange, blue, yellow, green)

 10 Ziploc bags or small containers

PREPARATION:

1. Prepare 5 bags or containers and label each with asexually reproducing animals.
2. Prepare 5 bags or containers and label each with sexually reproducing animals.
3. In each of the asexually reproducing bags, place 10 marbles with same colors. In each of
the sexually reproducing bags, place 10 marbles of mixed colors. See distribution below:

for bag 1 – ten red marbles

for bag 2 – ten orange marbles
=

for bag 3 – ten blue marbles

for bag 4 – ten yellow marbles
for bag 5 – ten green marbles
for bags 6 to 10 – two each of
red, orange, blue, yellow, and
green marbles
PROCEDURE:

1. Each marbles represents variation of organisms. Each bag represents one population.
Asexually reproducing organisms are usually copies of only one parent, and this type of
reproduction results in genetically similar population. Sexual reproduction, on the other
hand, produces a variety of genetic combinations.
2. Suppose that you are observe each population for the next three years using the
following scenarios:

Year 1. A new pathogen was introduced in the community and infected all orange
organisms. The infection led to the death of all orange organisms (remove all orange
marbles in each bags).

Year 2. Invasive organisms came into the community and ate all the food source of
yellow organisms. All the yellow organisms starved to death (remove all yellow marbles
in each bags).

Year 3. The yellow organisms are symbiont to the blue organisms. Because the blue
organisms lost their symbiont in year 2, the blue organisms weakened and eventually
died (remove all blue marbles in each of the bags).

3. Observe the population of sexually reproducing and asexually reproducing organisms.

Record your observations in the table below:

Asexual Reproduction Sexual Reproduction

Genetic Variation Genetically Identical Genetically Different

Complexity of the Simple Complicated

reduction process
Advantages They all have the same needs to Each organism does not possess
live and survive. the same weaknesses.

Disadvantages All of them will have the same The needs of each organism
weaknesses, making them easy to vary, in which they will not
eliminate. always find in every
environment.
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS:

1. Why do bags 1 to 5 contain only same-colored marbles?

-The reason why they only contain same-colored marbles is because the organisms in each
bag are genetically identical. They are all asexually reproducing organisms meaning they can
only make an exact copy of themselves. They possess the genes that their parent organism
has. The parent and daughter organisms have the exact same features as well as
weaknesses and strengths. There is a chance that you might not be able to distinguish who
is the parent organism or the daughter organism, genetically or physically. And that explains
why bags 1 to 5 only contain same-colored marbles.

2. Why do bags 6 to 10 contain mixed-colored marbles?

-Bags 6 to 10 contain mixed-colored marbles because the organisms they contain are
genetically different. The marble represents an organism, and the color of the marbles
represents the genetic variation between the organisms. They do not contain the exact
same genes of their parents because they are sexually reproducing organisms. They will not
also possess the exact same characteristics of their parents. They will have different habits,
strengths, weaknesses, etc. That is the reason why they do not have the same color.

3. Based on the simulation activity, which reproductive strategy is more successful? Why?

-Based on the simulation activity, the reproductive strategy that is more successful is the
sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction is more ahead of asexual reproduction in sense of
evolution. The bags with same-colored marbles (which represents asexually reproducing
organisms) were easily consumed, invaded and died for only one reason because they are
genetically the same and have the same weaknesses, making them easy to terminate. They
are just copies of only one parent. While the bags with mixed-color marbles (which
represents sexually reproducing organisms) has the privilege to adapt to new environments
and more likely to survive than asexually reproducing organisms because they all have
different genetic variation (which explains the different colors of offsprings and parents,
likewise causes variety, which is fundamental for the species' advancement and endurance
under different ecological components changes.) which clarifies why only few of the
sexually reproducing organisms are affected by the catastrophic events that occurred in
simulation activity.
CONCLUSION:

We therefore conclude that there are lots of advantages of sexual reproduction. In the
simulation activity, we saw that asexually reproducing organisms can be easily wipe out by a
SINGLE disaster while the sexually reproducing organism still remains standing despite the
multiple disasters they faced. We also noticed from the simulation activity that asexually
reproducing organisms are very identical to each other that they all have similar characteristics
(e.g. color, weaknesses, strengths, behavior, needs, etc.), while the sexually reproducing
organisms are very distinct from each other. From the way they look to the way they behave,
they all are different. Hence the reason why not all of them are affected by a disaster. But that
doesn't mean that there are no disadvantages of sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction is a
lengthy process compared to asexual reproduction. A partner must be acquired, the sperm
must fertilize the partner's egg, and then a baby will develop. However, the benefit of the
introduction of genetic variation outweighs that disadvantage because it is the reason why
sexually reproducing organisms can survive multiple disasters/epidemics/catastrophes.