Students then determine the sequence of these images placing the oldest first and the most recent last. Students begin by analyzing the images, counting the light colored and dark colored mice in each location and recording this information on their data sheet.

I use the Pocket Mouse Analysis PowerPoint to guide the activity. Once the students are in their groups, I pass each group a set of images to analyze (pages 5-8 of the student materials) and give each student the Pocket Mouse Data Sheet to record their answers throughout the activity. A student's mirror is the person who sits in their seat but on the opposite side of the room. My room is set up with 4 lab tables on opposite sides of the room with an aisle separating them. My favorite grouping strategy is to use 'mirror groups'. To help lessen the stress of the project based nature of this course, I typically allow students to choose their groups (though I usually require that the current group is not an exact match to the prior group) so to ensure students work with different people it is important that I assign the groups for these smaller tasks. One of my goals through the year is to help students learn to work with a variety of different people. Rather than walking you through these materials, this lesson demonstrates how I implement it in my classroom. The student materials are also found in the resources. The teacher materials hold many teaching tips and the answer keys.

Pocket mouse natural selection