Instinctive or Learned
9th-graders engage in creative and critical thinking as they use the scientific method to investigate the instinctive behaviors of Betta fish in Biology.
One of the most fascinating areas of study in biology is ethology: the study of animal behavior. There are two basic types of animal behavior. One type is instinctive behavior and the other is learned behavior.
Instinctive behaviors, commonly called instincts, are genetically programmed with little or no learning from the environment. For example, spiders can build a near-perfect web on their first attempt. Their ability to spin the web is genetically programmed.
Learned behaviors an animal remembers from some response to something that occurs from its surrounding environment. An example is when we learn to speak a language. We are not born with that ability; it must be learned.
In this lab, students investigate the visual display of Siamese fighting fish (Latin name Betta splendens). The male fighting fish is so aggressive towards other male Bettas that usually only one can be kept in a fish tank. It is thought that males will fight as a means of claiming their territory. When a male Betta sees another male Betta close by, the male Betta will demonstrate an instinctive behavior.
Students review the concepts of independent variables, dependent variables, and controls before studying a diagram of a Betta fish. Then, before performing any experiments, students observe and record the behavior of the fish.
From there, students bring a mirror up to the fish's container for approximately one minute and record observed changes in the fish's gill area and fins, then repeat this step. Many students used the front-facing camera on their phones instead of a mirror.
Following that, students seek to determine what causes the fish to respond by creating and utilizing models made from paper. By creating a variety of models, students hone in on whether the response is determined by the shape, color, or both the shape and color. Students observe and then record the reaction of the fish to the different models.
To wrap up the lab, students answer the following questions:
- Was your hypothesis supported in the data you collected in the experiment? Explain.
- What were the independent variable(s) in the different parts of this experiment? The dependent variable? The controlled variable(s)?
- What is meant by an instinctive response in an animal? List three other instinctive responses in animals. If you use an outside source, be sure to cite the source.
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