Island Biogeography: Students Colonize Islands to Test Hypotheses

 

James W. Haefner, Donald E. Rowan, Edward W. Evans, and Alice M. Lindahl

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2002, Volume 23

Abstract

This highly interactive field biology exercise requires students to colonize islands on an outdoor lawn or indoor carpet with model species. The islands are squares of different sizes made from string. Students colonize the islands by throwing marked plastic petri plates at the islands from the “mainland.” Extinctions of species on islands result when one plate lands on another. From their data, students estimate species immigration and extinction rates and obtain colonization curves for each island. They go on to develop a model for island colonization that is tested with additional data in a second lab session. When they have completed the exercise, students can solve quantitative problems in biogeography and conservation biology relating to the design of nature reserves. The goal of this exercise is to improve reasoning-level thinking and quantitative problem-solving using mathematical models closely tied to data collection.

Keywords:  biodiversity, island biogeography

University of Chicago (2001)