Unger Biology

WebQuest #1: How Populations Grow, Part 2

These two activities will demonstrate exponential growth. For both activities, answer the
questions as you go. Monitor the population of zebra mussels that are introduced into Lake
Ontario, and make predictions about bacteria growing in a bottle.

Zebra mussels
1) Which professor do you think is making the right prediction? Why?

2) Which variable did you put on the x-axis of the graph (independent)? The y-axis
(dependent)?

3) The number of individuals added each new year:

4) Which professor made the correct prediction? How is the population growth like a bomb?

5) What is the equation for the exponential growth model?

You do not need to do the teleconference activity. Stop there.

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Bacteria Growing in a Bottle

1) What time was the bottle half full?

2) If you were one of the bacteria, when do you suppose you'd start to worry about
overcrowding? Would that leave you enough time to do anything about it?

3) Now imagine that just before 12:00, we bring in three more bottles. If we can help the
bacteria to spill over into the other bottles, they'll have four times as much space as they've
ever had before! How much time after 12:00 do you think this will give them?

4) How does the increase in automobiles compare to the increase in population?

5) Use the Rule of 70 to find how long it will take for the number of students at school to
double if it increases by 5% every year

6) How does this apply to the use of petroleum?

7) What is the predicted world population in 2028? In 2054?

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These two activities will demonstrate logistic growth. One example is a fish population in a lake.
The other is graphing and analyzing the bison population of Yellowstone Park.

Fish Population
1) How would you describe the rate of growth in the fish population?

2) A growth rate is a rate of change. What is an analogy for this? dN/dt equals the rate of
change, or on a graph, the ___________ of the function.

3) What does the constant K stand for?

4) What is the carrying capacity of the lake?

5) Skip to the summary activity. What are the properties of Logistic growth? Exponential
growth?

Bison Population of Yellowstone Park

Follow these instructions to get to the webercise activity:

Click this link to go to the website

Select High School Science, California, find your book
Click on Biology 2010
Click on Data Analysis under Activities
Click on Chapter 14: Graph and analyze the bison population of Yellowstone Park.

1) What type of graph did you choose?

2) What did you put on the x-axis? The y-axis?

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3) In what year did the mountain bison population reach its carrying capacity?

4) Describe the population trends from:

a) 1902-1936
b) 1936-1957
c) 1957-1968

5) What might explain the population trend between 1957 and 1968?