Student Exploration: Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. A bird’s feather color is controlled by two alleles, D (dark feathers) and
d (lighter feathers). Suppose two Dd birds mate. What percentages of
DD, Dd, and dd offspring would you predict? Use the Punnett square at
right to help determine your answer.
DD 25% Dd 50% dd 25%
2. In this situation, what ratio of heterozygous (Dd) to homozygous (DD and dd) offspring would
you expect to find?
50:50
Gizmo Warm-up
Many factors—immigration, natural selection, hunting, etc—can influence
the composition of a population. To determine if one of these factors is
affecting a population, it is useful to know what a population looks like
when none of these factors is present.
In 1908, Godfrey Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg independently discovered the laws that govern
such populations. These laws can be explored in the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Gizmo.
1. The parrots you see represent a population of 500 parrots. For these parrots, the D allele is
incompletely dominant over d, which means that Dd parrots are intermediate between DD and
dd parrots. In the Gizmo, select the TABLE tab. How many parrots of each genotype are in the
initial population?
DD 174 Dd 100 dd 150
2. Return to the DESCRIPTION tab. Click Begin, and then click Breed. What happens?
The parrots pair up, produce eggs, and then fly away.
3. Click Hatch, and look on the TABLE tab. What are the parrot populations now?
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