This award provides funds for the further refinement of interactive computer software that simulates a variety of types of experiments in population biology. By its nature, population biology deals with quantitative aspects of ecology, evolution and behavior. Examples include the effects of predator/prey or host/parasite relationships on the success (or extinction) of particular species, rates of fixation of mutations within populations of defined size, and others. Mathematical models in these branches of biology translate known or assumed properties of individual members of populations into predictions about the properties of the population as a whole. The mathematical manipulations required are often tedious, difficult, or both. Thus math anxieties seriously impede the study of more than the simplest basic principles of population biology at the undergraduate level. The exemplary software being developed by Alstad and his colleagues will make both simple and complex population models far more accessible to students at all levels.
