Tweezers, Tongs & Gummy Worms: Evolution Never Tasted So Good! 

Tweezers, Tongs & Gummy Worms: Evolution Never Tasted So Good! 🐦🍬

Our Year 12 Biology students recently brought Charles Darwin’s classic Galápagos finch experiment to life as part of Unit 4, Area of Study 2 — and turned the classroom into a hilarious (and slightly chaotic) survival challenge.

Armed with “beaks” (tweezers, tongs, and other tools), students took on the role of Darwin’s finches and had just two minutes to gather as much “food” as possible. The food sources weren’t easy: ping pong balls, golf balls, and gummy worms carefully hidden in cactus plants all tested each bird’s foraging skills. Each “species” raced to fill their tubs, but just like in the wild, some adaptations worked better than others.

The activity wasn’t just fun — it demonstrated big ideas in evolution: natural selection, survival of the fittest, migration, and scavenging. Students quickly learned how even small differences in traits could make the difference between thriving and starving. The room was full of competition, laughter, and teamwork, as the Galápagos Islands came alive in our classroom.

And because every good story of survival deserves a happy ending, all finches — successful or not — shared in a sweet treat of gummy bears to celebrate. After all, in this lesson it wasn’t just survival of the fittest… it was survival of the sweetest!