In this unit, students investigate population growth using bacteria and yeast. They study how bacteria and yeast reproduce and how populations of these organisms grow over time by focusing on growth rates and patterns of growth. They create, use, and evaluate representations such as tables, line graphs, and equations to learn about population growth.
Representing Doubling - How can models of microbial population growth be represented? How do these representations help explain patterns of doubling?
Rate of Growth - How can we compare different doubling rates?
Data Modeling - How do microbe populations really grow in nature? How can we use the doubling models to understand actual growth rates and patterns? What do growth models explain about the growth of the population?
What follows are more detailed thoughts on the big ideas listed above. You can also refer to the accompanying worksheet for the first couple of days of the unit.
