NEXUS Institute for Quantitative Biology (NIQB)

This module contains exercises designed to walk students through a real-world example of the coevolution of fruit color and primate frugivore color vision. Students will apply the Hardy-Weinberg Principle to quantitatively determine if evolution is occurring. This will be accomplished through calculating allele and genotype frequencies, analyzing data sets, and evaluating hypotheses through Chi-square statistical analyses. LEGOs are used to simulate population genetics.

This module has students venturing outdoors to take a 50m transect and collect abundance data on plants utilizing quadrats in both edge and interior environment. Mathematically the goals of this module are to emphasize how sample size can influence data analysis and variance within the data set. Students perform calculations for species diversity using the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index. They will then take averages and the standard error of their data set, and use this information to create a graph. They will repeat this process for the entire class data set. Students will also run the student’s t-test to test for significance between the two environments.

This module contains exercises focused on the use and interpretation of density independent and density dependent population growth models. Students build logistic and exponential growth models in Microsoft Excel (either using a template or built from scratch). The module is based on an actual ecological phenomenon, the black rat population explosion that occurs every 48-50 years following the flowering of the bamboo Melocanna baccifera. As part of this module, students will gather life history information from the PBS Nova Documentary ‘Rat Attack’ describing this phenomenon for use in the population models.