Preview - From Ecosystems To Speciation

Assessing the Models

At the beginning of the lesson, you were introduced to an equation-based model of population dynamics.  In that model, population oscillations are based on the birth and death rates of the predators and prey, and the prey death rate and the predator birth rate are proportional to the number of prey caught by the predators.

Here you will evaluate and compare this equation-based model and the NetLogo model.

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

List at least two limitations of using a model like these to make predictions about what could happen in the real world

List at least two reasons why scientist might use a model like these.

Based on your investigations, do you think that this equation-based model does a good job of explaining the phenomenon of population fluctuations? Why or why not?

Based on your investigations, do you think the NetLogo model does a good job of explaining the phenomenon of population fluctuations? Why or why not?

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.