|
Jan. 14, 2009
Cougar vs. Deer Population Experiment
We are using Apologia's Elementary Zoology Book 3 for science this year. It is the study of land animals. We just finished chapter 4 and completed an interesting demonstration of the relationship between populations of predator and prey.
The experiment called for marking off a 2 ft X 2 ft square on the floor. In that square, begin by placing 3 "deer" (2 X 2 inch paper- we printed a picture of a deer on ours). Then, a cougar (a 6 X 3 in cardboard) was tossed into the square. The cougar has to "eat" 3 deer to survive to the next generation. If the cougar survives, then the next generation toss 2 cougars. If the cougar doesn't survive, use 1 cougar for the next generation. (The assumption being that another cougar will move into the territory) For each deer that doesn't get eaten, add 1 additional deer to the next generation.
For our experiment, we had several generations where our cougar failed to eat any deer. That made the deer population increase dramatically. The instructions only said to make 20 deer. We wound up needing over 90 deer at one point in our experiment.
In this picture, there are 3 "cougars" that have been tossed. We haven't picked up the deer that have been eaten yet.
We graphed our results in Excel. I was impressed at how well the graph demonstrates the predator/prey population relationship. First, the population of the prey begins to increase, this allows the predator population to increase. As the predator population increases, more prey will get eaten. Eventually, the predator population will fall too because there is not enough prey.
My son also did several notebook pages on the computer about the experiment.
This one is sort of a procedure page. I honestly just give him free reign most of the time and see what he comes up with. It turns out better that way! We are really loving Elementary Apologia.
|
♥Comments
(5)
♥Post A Comment!♥
Permanent Link
|
Aug. 25, 2008
Creation Book Finished
Aug. 20, 2008
10 Plagues Book
My son completed his 10 plagues book yesterday. He did a really good job on it. It took him forever and it about drove me crazy, but I was mostly successful at holding my tongue and letting him work at his own pace. That is a huge accomplishment for me. The pictures are hand-drawn, then scanned and resized to go with his text. Here is his book minus the cover because I just noticed it has his full name on it.
|
♥Comments
(8)
♥Post A Comment!♥
Permanent Link
|
Apr. 2, 2008
Botany and gardening
We've had a nice couple of days again, so we've spent some time outdoors. We read about pollination in Exploring Creation with Botany. My 8 yo daughter made her notebook page outside.
Here she is working on her page.
And her completed page.
She used a page from the Basic-plus set of Notebooking Pages from Notebookingpages.com. I was really proud of the job that she did.
My older son much prefers making his notebook pages on the computer. He's a terrific artist, but he prefers typing to writing so much that he doesn't like to do notebooking on paper. So, for the most part, I let him use the computer.
10 year old ds notebook page
I trimmed my lavender plant (a lot) and have lots of lavender drying in the attic. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it all. I might use it in a wreath if it dries well. DD wants to put some in soap. I'm not sure what I need to do with it first to use in soap. I have the Your Backyard Herb Garden. I need to check out what to do with dried lavender leaves in there.
Then I cranked up the Mantis tiller (well, I can't crank it, I had to wait for dh) and tilled up a little patch for spinach. This is quite an experiment for me. I've not had great success with gardening in the past, but I really want to try it again. We have tomato and pepper plants that we're growing from seed in the light hut. So far one tomato plant has sprouted.
|
♥Comments
(3)
♥Post A Comment!♥
Permanent Link
|
|
