SCI 207.W1.Laboratory
SCI207 Week 1 Laboratory : Population Biology
Visit Population Biology and complete the virtual lab. This lab
gives you the opportunity to explore the affects of competition on
population growth. Follow the instructions on the Population
Biology Submission Form. Using this worksheet, you will answer the
lab questions and fill in the table on the Population Biology
Submission Form. Save it as a Word document and submit it.
Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be
used to evaluate your assignment.
Laboratory: Population Biology
Complete the Population Biology Lab found
at:http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL_04/BL_04.html.
This lab gives you the opportunity to explore the affects of
competition on population growth.
CAREFULLY, follow the instructions to conduct your virtual
experiments. Fill in the table below as you go. The
questions below are the same ones found in the “journal” of the
lab. Hint: Make sure you read click on the “Information” box;
valuable information for answering the questions can be found
there! You are required to answer all six questions and submit this
document to the Dropbox. Do NOT email
the journal questions to your instructor through the website
above.
Paramecium Growth Data
P. aurelia grown alone, cells, mL
P. caudatum grown alone , cells, mL
P. aurelia grown in mixed culture, cells/mL
P. caudatum grown in mixed culture, cells/mL
Day 0
Day 2
Day 4
Day 6
Day 8
Day 10
Day 12
Day 14
Day 16
Journal Questions
1. Make a hypothesis about how you think the two
species of Paramecium will grow alone and how they will grow when
they are grown together. (Make sure you understand what a
hypothesis is before you address this!)
2. Explain how you tested your hypothesis. (Give
details of how you conducted your experiment. Consider this the
“Methods” section of a lab report.)
3. On what day did the Paramecium caudatum population
reach the carrying capacity of the environment when it was grown
alone? How do you know?
4. On what day did the Paramecium aurelia population reach
the carrying capacity of the environment? How do you know?
5. Explain the differences in the population growth
patterns of the two Paramecium species. What does this tell you
about how Paramecium aurelia uses available resources?
6. Describe what happened when the Paramecium populations
were mixed in the same test tube. Do the results support the
principle of competitive exclusion?
7. Explain how this experiment demonstrates that no two
species can occupy the same niche.
