Preview - Animal Behavior Lab (Isopods)

Experimental design: Part 1

The model below is of an experimental setup to study habitat preference of a certain type of isopods called rollypollies.

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Explore the model above. Change conditions and other parameters.

Write at least two observations that you found interesting or surprising.

You will run the model below after you answer this question. What will happen if you set up the conditions as 10 rollypollies and the two chambers with the same condition (dry/dry or moist/moist) then run for 30 ticks. Write your prediction regarding the distribution of roly-polies in the two chambers.

Don't run the model before you answer this question.

Test your prediction. 

  • Start the model with 10 roly-polies. 
  • Set the same conditions in both chambers. 
  • Run the model for 30 ticks. 

Did your results match your prediction?  Why or why not?

Suppose we increase the number of roly-polies to 20, run for 30 ticks and repeat.

Suppose we increase the number of roly-polies to 40, run for 30 ticks and repeat.

What do you think will happen? Run the model. 

Record your observations about increasing the number of roly-polies.  How does this data compare to your prediction in Question 1.2?

Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.