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Shodor Scholars Program 2009
Shodor > SUCCEED > Workshops > Archive > Shodor Scholars Program 2009

In the beginning, the students modeled population growth by randomly pouring skittles out of a cup and adding the number of skittles with a "s" on top to the previous population. The students repeated the experiment several times and each group shared their data. Then, the students plotted everyone's data in excel and analyzed the graph. Jeff, the instructor, described different ways to estimate data, such as finding the average of the data values in each trial. Jeff also helped the class derive an exponential growth function modeling the data and graphed the function with the data to compare the behavior of the data with the behavior of the model. There were very small deviations.

During the second half of class, the students repeated the same experiment with population decay. The class graphed the data, similar to last time and an exponential decay function modeling the population decay, and compared the behavior. Later, the class integrated both population increase (birthrate) and decrease (deathrate) to see how they would affect the population. A more visual modeling software called "Vensim" was used. Boxes represent variables, such as population, and arrows represent processes, such as population changes. After the students finished building the models, they executed it and the graph was displayed. Jeff helped the students adjust the settings, which affected the graphs. They discussed factors that would affect population, such as food supply and predators. Finally, the students attempted to build a predator/prey model. The purpose of this class was to explore the different methods used to estimate data to determine the underlying pattern in the behavior of the data.