Sunrise, Wizard Islet, British Columbia
BI102
General Biology
Spring 2008
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Dr. Brian K. Penney
Goulet 2320
603 641-7149
bpenney@anselm.edu
Sunrise, Wizard Islet, British Columbia |
BI102 General Biology Spring 2008
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Dr. Brian K. Penney |
EXERCISES 1-3; p191-199
Students will cover behavioral topics in lecture two weeks prior to this lab, so will they have a general theoretical background. However, foraging strategy is a minor topic in lecture, so this lab is meant to expand on those concepts.
a) Foraging, general: Foraging for prey, whether animal or plant, is a complex process, as these resources are often patchy in both space and time. Foraging and basic metabolism both take energy, and animals must therefore take in resources at a rate to support these processes (hopefully more, if they also wish to reproduce, etc!). Students need to understand what a search image is and that optimal foraging is balancing energy gain versus time and energy spent foraging, as well as risk.
b) Rule of limited returns: After foraging in a patch for a while, resources are less abundant and it will take longer to find them due to increased search time. Students should understand the combined graph produced by the exercise, including axes labels, and why it has the shape it does.
c) What models do: This lab is an oversimplification of a complex problem, but that is the point. Models allow us to reduce a situation to only the most important variables so we can study those in the simplest and most effective manner. Students should understand what aspects of the real world are represented by the various objects in the exercise (beans, etc.).
LAB SCHEDULE
Exercise 1: 10 minutes
Exercise 2: 30 minutes
Exercise 3 40 minutes
No Exercise 4 (Designing their own experiments)
Remaining time is for students to work on their presentations. PLEASE double check
Spring 08
seminar listings to see whether all groups have enough references (five) and see who is using powerpoint or not.
| Type | # | Per | Item | Section | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | 1 | Bench | dishpan | A Foraging simulation | |
| E | 1 | Bench | sand to fill dishpan halfway | A Foraging simulation | |
| E | 1 | Bench | bean set 1: 30 kidney beans | A Foraging simulation | |
| E | 1 | Bench | bean set 2 | A Foraging simulation | 40 kidney beans 30 Navy beans 20 Lima beans |
| E | 1 | Bench | stopwatch | A Foraging simulation | |
| E | 2 | Class | seive | A Foraging simulation |
Students have time to work with partners to plan their seminar presentation
Required Equipment: B Seminar planning| Type | # | Per | Item | Section | Notes |
|---|
A printable syllabus, with course dates, required materials, grading and other policies can be found here.
A one page printable version of the schedule can be found here.
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