Comparative & Fair Testing in Year 6!

In science today, Year 6 investigated how changes in the environment can affect the survival of certain species. In this enquiry (a comparative and fair test), the children explored the survival of the peppered moth and how population levels changed due to the Industrial Revolution. 

The children worked scientifically by thinking carefully about the variables within the enquiry and how to make it a fair test. 

"The independent variable in this enquiry is the colour of the bark on the trees. We changed this to represent either the environment in the Industrial Revolution or the environment after the Clean Air Act was brought in." Elizabeth

"The dependent variable in this enquiry was the number of moths that survived." Dash

"To make it a fair test we made sure to control certain variables such as: the number of  each type of moth, the size of the moths and the height from which they were dropped." Lilyanne

Overall, the Year 6 children were able to conclude that an environment can affect chances of survival and therefore the likelihood of reproducing offspring with the same inherited traits. They could see that a species better adapted to an environment (the darker moths in the Industrial Revolution and the lighter moths after the Clean Air Act) is more likely to survive. 

Excellent work, Year 6!