1. Sampling and Population Studies

2. Why Sampling and Population
Studies are Done...

3. To Monitor the Health of an Ecosystem
Christmas bird counts and the bird atlas
Frog mutations

4. Freshwater Macro-invertebrate count
Looking at stream quality

5. Endangered Species
Brown pelicans
osprey
Bald eagles

6. Water rights in the Owens Valley (DWP)

7. Draw up Political Boundaries and Dispute money
The United States Census

8. Establish Hunting and Fishing Limits

9. Determine the Effectiveness of Experimental Drugs

10. To Look at the Television Viewing Habits of Americans

11. Monitor the Effect of Nature on an Ecosystem
Volcanoes
Hurricanes
Global Warming
EL Nino

12. To Track Subtle changes that may have been brought about by humans
Integrated pest management
Reintroduction of animals into National Parks
Determine the effectiveness of genetically engineered crops

13. Because it’s interesting and fun, and you don’t always know what the data will reveal!!!

14. Key concepts

15. 1.Sampling is done because counting all of the stars, bacteria, people etc, is too cumbersome or just plain impossible.

16. 2. The sampling must be done randomly.

17. 2. The sampling technique assumes that the population is distributed evenly (statistically) throughout the area of study.

18. 3. The data is interpreted and analyzed knowing the limitations presented earlier.

19. The Study must be conducted over a long period of time...
because populations fluctuate from year to year.

20. Modeling Population Studies in the Classroom

21. II. Transect-Line Method
I. The Grid Method
II. Transect-Line Method
III. Tag and Recapture Method

22. Predator/Prey Relationships
The Grid Method:
Predator/Prey Relationships

23. The Daily Newspaper serves as a Hypothetical Forest

24. Our Hypothetical Forest is full of Predators (Owls) and Prey (Voles)
The Letter “E”
The Letter “L”

25. By using different parts of the newspaper, we can increase and decrease the amounts of predator and prey in our forest for any given year...

26. Then we divide the forest into a 10 inch by 10 inch grid

27. Students then count only those squares that have been randomly selected

28. Plotting the Graph and Analyzing the Data

29. Population Studies are an important part of our science curriculum involving many different skills:
1. Data Collection and Analysis
2. Mathematics including statistics and proportions
3. Graphing
4. Cooperative learning