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WHAT IS IT?

This model shows the birth rate, reproduction rate, and the lifespan of a population of turtles. The turtles interact with each other and when a female and a male meet, they create a new turtle.


HOW IT WORKS

The blue turtle represents a male turtle. Its characteristics are to move about randomly, enable a female to make a new turtle when their paths cross, and lastly to die off in a preset amount of time. The pink turtle's characteristics are to move about randomly, make a new turtle when it meets up with a male, and lastly to die off.


HOW TO USE IT

The setup button resets the whole field. The go button makes the field process run. The initial-population slider makes changes to the number of original turtles. The birthrate slider bar says how the quickly the turtles reproduce. The lifespan slider bar gives a lifespan to every turtle.


THINGS TO TRY

If you put the lifespan to 100, have the initial population at 60, and have the birthrate at 48 or higher, the population will become over crowded. Another thing you could try is to set the population and the birth rate at 50 and to put the birthrate to one. The whole population will die immediately.


EXTENDING THE MODEL

Someone could add more females then males or the other way around. One could also add another type of turtle. For instance one could add a predator that eats the turtle.


CREDITS AND REFERENCES

Created by Nathaniel Davis on March 28, 2007 for the apprenticeship program at Shodor Education Foundation.