This is a workshop on the use of mathematical and computer models in biological resource conservation. It is designed to bring together an interdisciplinary group of college teachers, in ecology and population biology, biological resource management, and applied mathematics. The purpose of the workshop is to involve the participants in the techniques of biological modeling, to enhance their effectiveness in presenting modeling methods in the classroom, and to encourage the use of interdisciplinary modeling approaches to broad scientific questions. About 25 college and university faculty will participate in two sessions. The main four-week session will be held in August, 1988, with a one week follow-up session the following June. During the intervening academic year each participant will undertake an individual project at his or her home institution, and these will be reported on and discussed in the follow-up. In the main four-week session, participants will be introduced to some of the principal issues of conservation biology, and to modeling techniques for their analysis. The session will culminate in a group modeling project, analyzing the conservation biology of the Black-Footed Ferret. In addition to the NSF funds, participants' institutions will contribute about 15% in travel costs to the operation of the project.
