Animal Adaptations Inquiry - Bird Beak Experiment

Aim - ​To investigate how birds’ beaks are adapted to suit their habitats and diet.

Materials -
● 2 Plastic bowls
● Chopsticks
● 2 Spoons
● Tongs
● 2 Straws
● Lolly Snakes
● Popcorn
● Rice
● Unifix
● Stop Watch

Method -
1. In Groups of 4, gather all the materials you need for your investigation
2. Fill in the investigation planner (everything except for ‘results’)
3. Set up the ‘beaks’ and ‘food’ for your group
4. In your group, take turns to use a ‘beak’ to get some food while someone times using a stopwatch
the other two members need to watch to ensure the test is remaining fair.
5. The person using a ‘beak’ has 20 seconds to collect as much ‘food’ as possible and transfer it to
the second bowl (the bird’s stomach)
6. Record how many pieces of ‘food’ are collected for each ‘beak’ in the data table.
7. Compare results by discussing in your group– what beak works best for what food? why?
8. Record and explain your results in the ‘results’ section.

Record how much many pieces of ‘food’ were collected using each ‘beak’.
E
Food
Snakes Popcorn Rice Unifix

Chopsticks 3 snakes 20 6 popcorn 20 4 rice secs - 0 unifix blocks

secs -Harry secs - Christian 20 secs -
Beaks
Saksham Nainaka
Spoons 6 snakes 20 27 popcorn 25 rice 20 secs 0 unifix blocks
secs - Harry 20 secs - - Christian 20 secs -
Saksham Nainaka
Tongs 7 snakes 8 63 popcorn ¾ rice 20 secs - 17 unifix blocks
secs - 20 secs - Harschil’s 16 secs -
 Animal Adaptations Inquiry - Bird Beak Experiment

Harschil’s Harschil’s group Harschil’s

group group group
Straws 5 snakes 20 5 popcorn 20 11 rice 20 secs 4 unifix blocks
secs - Harry secs - - Christian 20 secs -
Saksham Nainaka

Investigation Planner

Investigation Question - Hypothesis​ (What do you think will happen?

What will happen with the different methods of
eating and what will be the outcome and what
is the best method for each food?
Explain why)​-
Our hypothesis is that the spoons will be best
for rice and popcorn but the straws and
chopsticks are best uniflex blocks and the
snakes.

To make the test fair what are you going to:

Change? Measure? Keep the Same?

What we changed were the We measured the time it took The things that we kept the
simulators and the method of and we measured the amount same was the food and the
eating the different foods. we ate. bowls.

Independent Variable Dependent Variable Control Variable

Labelled Diagram Equipment Procedure

The equipment we used is
mentioned at the top of the
page.
How will you complete the investigation?
What we did was we kept the
objects in a joint position so
there was a fulcrum at one
end and then we simulated
the foods using our
equipment.
 Animal Adaptations Inquiry - Bird Beak Experiment

Explaining Results

When you changed the beaks what happened? What does this mean for real-life?

A bird with a beak similar to a pair of tongs will find eating small objects easier as well as big
objects, although a bird with a beak similar to a spoon will experience similar results to the tong
like bird but it may use its beak for digging sand to find food, a chopstick like beak will be best
for small items and same for a straw like beak.

Why did this happen? Was your hypothesis accurate?

This happened because the tongs were
extremely easy and were by far the easiest tool
to use for everything except the rice, this is
because the spoons were more rounded and
had a better surface to use for getting rice.
Our hypothesis was not 100% correct but was
roughly 28% correct because the spoons were
easiest for rice but the others were not very
accurate estimations.
 Animal Adaptations Inquiry - Bird Beak Experiment

What challenges did you have? How could you improve the experiment?

We faced the challenge of not being able to We could improve the experiment by using
provide our own data on the tongs experiment more instruments and more teamwork will
because we did not spare any time when we probably be the most crucial for our group.
acquired the tongs.