Learner Guide

EcoBalance learner guide

Use this guide to frame the app with a clear ecological question, expected observations, and follow-up reasoning instead of treating the simulation as a standalone experience.

Open application Teacher guide Standards

Teaching Focus

Learner tasks

Run a baseline case and identify whether the populations oscillate, stabilize, or crash.
Change carrying capacity and explain how the prey and predator curves respond.
Reduce predation or predator death rate and compare the new system behavior to the baseline.

Keep this distinction clear

Short-term balance is not the same thing as long-term stability.
Visible cycles can still be fragile.
Population size changes should be tied to feedback and constraints, not only to surface pattern names.

Suggested Sequence

Before the run

Define the predator-prey relationship, identify the starting ecological constraints, and predict whether the system should oscillate, stabilize, or collapse.

During the run

Run a baseline case, then change carrying capacity, predation, or predator survival one at a time and compare the resulting curves.

After the run

Explain which feedbacks best account for the new behavior and what additional run would test whether the system is truly stable or only briefly balanced.

Core Question

How do predator-prey interactions and ecological constraints shape population stability or collapse?

Evidence Prompts

What to record

Which ecological parameter changed and which remained fixed.
How prey and predator curves responded over time.
Where the system shifted from oscillation to stability or collapse.

Questions to answer

What in the curves supports your explanation of the system response?
Which feedback or constraint seems most important in this case?
What additional run would test whether your explanation is correct?

Self-Study Path

Try this on your own

Run a baseline case, then change one ecological factor and compare the curves. Write a short explanation of whether the system became more stable, more fragile, or more likely to collapse.

Extend the investigation

Compare this app with Life Cycle Modeler or EcoSpecies to connect abstract dynamics to organisms and real ecological systems.

Scientific Virtues

Habits to practice

Distinguish between what the model output shows and what you infer about real ecosystems.
Look for competing explanations before settling on the first plausible pattern.
Revise claims when changing one condition at a time produces results that challenge the original story.

Continue the thread

Use the Scientific Virtues page to connect ecological modeling with evidence, skepticism, and revision.