Hunger Games Analysis 

1. In this lab, we as a class became a population of organisms trying to survive by collecting food (corks) and making offspring (flipping coins with specific alleles). This simulated natural selection and the change it has on species over time.
2. The best phenotype in my opinion for capturing food was the "aa" alleles (the pinchers). The pinchers has to pick up food between their thumb and index finger. I know this because when I was a pincher vs. a knuckler I found it easier to pick up more corks with my index finger and thumb then with my knuckles. Even though I wasn't a stumpy I still know it would be hard to collect food because the populations of stumpys went down significantly over time because they found it hard to gather food.
3. The population definitely evolved, since the allele frequency saw a dramatic shift towards the small "a" allele. In the beginning, there was a 64% to 35% relationship between the big "A" and the little "a" allele, but after 6 rounds, the small "a" allele controlled 83% while the big "A" had only 17%. Every round, the stumpies were contained to a population size of 1 or 2, while the others had numbers between 10 and 20. The population definitely evolved, since the allele frequency saw a dramatic shift towards the small "a" allele. In the beginning, there was a 64% to 35% relationship between the big "A" and the little "a" allele, but after 6 rounds, the small "a" allele controlled 83% while the big "A" had only 17%. Every round, the stumpies were 
4. There were some factors that affected our procedure, the biggest one probably being the way the food was laid out. Some years all the food would dumped into little piles, and other years it would be placed in a wavy line. However, there were many non-random factors as well. Like for example, the fact that everybody every year had to stand around the same circle and were not allowed to look at where the corks were scattered. Although there were many non-random factors they did not have much of an effect on the eventual outcome of the population. It still molded to look like the "winners", knucklers.
5. If the food was a different size, I think that the results would be different because then the different species advantages would change. For example, if we has used softballs instead of corks then the Knucklers would be at a disadvantage and the stumpy would have an advantage. This is because one of regular size can't pick up a softball with just their knuckles. 
6. If there was no incomplete dominance in the community, then the knucklers would not exist, and the pinchers and maybe even the knucklers would have become the dominant trait across the species, since there would be no mixing of genes to produce the knucklers. 
7. Natural selection is what causes change in the population, which relates to evolution. When the better traits are selected, the organisms that have those traits survive while the others die out, and so over time the population begins to only look like the organisms with the better traits. This is natures way of rewarding the best and killing of the worst. Its like survival of the fittest.
8. Some of the strategies that people used were that they would turn out their sweatshirts over at the bottom to make a pocket/bowl. There were also cheater that would while no one was looking, scoop up the corks with their arms in order survive. Those that had enough food to survive applied and adapted different strategies in order to pass on their traits and survive. 
9. In evolution everything evolves not just one specific species or trait, the whole population evolves. Natural selection acts upon both phenotype and the genotype. The new generation's genotype consists of the dominant allele and the majority of phenotypes is the dominante phenotype. In this case, it would be the pinchers.