Module/Week 3
Population Analysis
Recitation Media Piece
Population Analysis Objective
Study and collect information about a population with photography, sampling, and writing.
Photo: a population of daisies growing in a grass lawn.
Recitation (the 50-minute activity) attendance is not required, but you are welcome to use that class time as office hours to ask your GTA questions, or study with classmates in 127 Weniger.
Be safe, travel with others if possible, and minimize negative impact to organisms and their environments.
Assignment (due Sunday on Canvas)
If helpful, refer back to the Data & Sampling, Photography, & Population Data wepbages in the Data Collection lecture guide.
Population Analysis
In this assignment you are creating media about a population. Choose a location with a population of organisms. It can be a yard, field, or somewhere indoors like a carpeted room. The species can be plant, animal, fungus, etc. If you need to work indoors, you could even make your own habitat and population, like a pattern of wallpaper, cereal in a bowl, or toys spread on a carpet.
Photograph and add captions, including each of these steps:
-
Start with basics like name, date, location, weather, etc.
-
Determine the approximate size of the entire location/habitat, and the size of the smaller area you will sample at that location.
-
Design a way to sample the population, you could use a handmade quadrat, a ruler, an arm’s length, etc.
-
Using your sample, provide the number of organisms you sampled and your extrapolated size of the total population in the larger habitat.
-
Describe how the population is distributed (clumped, random, etc.)
-
Provide evidence of possible interactions within the population and/or interactions of the population with other species.
As always, be safe and travel with your field kit and safety items. Be aware of surroundings and travel with a companion, if possible.
Turn in to Canvas your original media piece that addresses each of the assignment requirements. You can be creative and have fun with this, there are many ways to successfully complete this assignment.
Media Directions
Submitted to Canvas.
Upload your population analysis to Canvas. Your analysis can be submitted as a PDF, a word document, a photo, or even a video. Multiple assignment formats are supported.
