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Guiding Students to Understand Functional Responses: Holling's Disc Experiment Revisited

Abstract:

Inspired by the approach first employed by C.S. Holling in his classic “disc experiment,” this article provides a sequence of learning activities that increase students' understanding of the mechanisms behind saturating effects in predator-prey scenarios. The proposed lesson is recommended for inclusion in courses that address mathematical biology or modeling from introductory to advanced levels. The featured activities include a theoretical derivation of Holling's type II functional response model, a hands-on experiment for data gathering, and tools for further exploration through individual-based computer simulations. This multi-faceted approach gives students the opportunity to gather different sets of data in order to meet multiple learning objectives. Classroom trials conducted in Spring 2019 indicate that the proposed instructional resources and activities are effective for improving students' understanding of the mechanisms in Holling's type II functional response equation, and deepen students' appreciation of authentic data-driven mathematical modeling in ecology.