[SwarmFest2004] abstract

[Morses4]

I developed a StarLogo project with crayfish data from my work in northern 
Minnesota that I acquired while attending graduate school at the University of 
Minnesota in fisheries.  I started working on it while attending a Starlogo 
workshop for teachers at the Santa Fe Institute, and I find it useful in my 
current job teaching biology to inner city students in Camden, NJ.  The 
abstract 
follows:

Teaching how organisms interact with habitat is different from researching 
the problem.  Research often paints a complex picture.  Multivariate statistics 
are commonly used to describe the influence of several habitat variables on 
distribution.  At the high school level, textbooks often paint a simpler, 
sometimes oversimplified, picture.  I attempted a third approach by developing 
a 
Starlogo model.  It uses actual field data on crayfish distribution and several 
microhabitat variables to illustrate habitat use in an intuitive, visual, and 
accessible manner.  The model uses a population of artificial crayfish, 
reacting to habitat variables in parallel, as instructed by the student.  The 
goal is 
to develop habitat selection criteria for these artificial crayfish that will 
place them in habitat on the computer screen corresponding to real habitat 
used by real crayfish at the study site.  Students determine whether individual 
variables affect young-of-the-year crayfish numbers at the study site 
positively or negatively.  Then they estimate the degree of crayfish response 
to each 
variable, and combine the variables to produce their best multivariate model.