Too Many or Too Few

Lab Brief #5

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

What the body does in one minute is wilder than any cartoon.

What you'll learn

If foxes eat too many rabbits, some foxes go hungry and the number of foxes falls. Then the rabbits increase again. The two numbers rise and fall together, always a little out of step.

Key words

predator
An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
prey
An animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: how does the body solve this problem?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

playground space
coloured bibs
notebook

⚠️ Safety first

Play on a clear, flat surface and walk rather than sprint if the ground is wet.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "predator" and "prey" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Play a tag game where five foxes chase twenty rabbits over five rounds. Record how many of each are left each round and draw a graph of both numbers.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

If the number of rabbits falls, the number of foxes will probably:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

An animal that is hunted is called the:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🐙 An octopus has 9 brains and 3 hearts.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Your own body is doing this thousands of times every second.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find one thing about your body that's different from a friend's. Wonder why.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”

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