Rarefaction Exercise
Steven J. Hageman
, Appalachian State University
Author Profile
This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process.
HideThis activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process.
This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This page first made public: Jun 4, 2009
Summary
An a diverse assemblage of modern gastropods provides a data set for students to learn about sampling protocols, rarefaction and diversity indices.
Context
Audience
Part of a laboratory exercise for upper-level undergraduate course in paleontology.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
observation of morphological features
numerical data collection and manipulate
statistical methods associated with diversity and sampling.
numerical data collection and manipulate
statistical methods associated with diversity and sampling.
How the activity is situated in the course
part of a sequence
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
sampling, diversity, specimen-level morphological observations
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
combines morphological analysis of diverse gastropods with sampling protocols and comparison of assemblages.
Other skills goals for this activity
numerical data collection, analysis and graphing
Description of the activity/assignment
This version of this exercise is not self standing (must be supported by lecture or reading), however, the material provided outlines the steps for an integrated study of diversity and sampling.
Determining whether students have met the goals
Results of exercises are graded and the material is included on end of term exam.
More information about assessment tools and techniques.Download teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment:Rarefaction exercise (Acrobat (PDF) 329kB Aug1 09)
- Instructors Notes: ../../../../details/files/17920.html
- Solution Set:Rarefaction Data (Acrobat (PDF) 17kB Jun4 09)
Other Materials
- Sorting Grid (Acrobat (PDF) 223kB Jun4 09)
- Rarefaction Graph (Acrobat (PDF) 19kB Jun4 09)
- Gastropod Lab (Microsoft Word 32kB Jun4 09)
