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dchin, kalyn, karina
 
Ant Colony
From the Ant Colony simulation, we learned that the specific purposes of each ant group depend on environmental factors and the needs of the colony. In order for the colony to be completely functional, it necessary for different ants to have different tasks so that the overall needs of the colony can be efficiently met. They can manipulate the environment better when they are working together as a group. The simulation demonstrates the never-ending circle of life. The actions of the ants are dependent upon their environment just as the environment is affected by and ultimately meets the needs of the ants. While experimenting we discovered that altering the numbers did not affect the initial separation of the individual ant groups. The 50-25-25 ratio did not change even after we took out the middle and patroller groups. The gatherer ants all switched roles to meet the demands of the colony while maintaining their jobs as gatherer. This is an example of our assertion that the ants are constantly interacting with the environment as well as adapting to it. This is consistent with our understanding of evolution, especially in regards to the branching out and eventual narrowing of traits. Perhaps in the past, there was a larger variance among the different groups and numbers of ants, but as the ants explored different ratios of patroller, middle, and forager ants, they eventually settled on the 50-25-25 ratio because they found that it helped them to survive.
 
Wolf-Sheep
From the Wolf-Sheep simulation, we saw that there is a delicate balance between different parts of the ecosystem. Any time we adjusted any one factor, there was a dramatic surplus of sheep, grass, or wolves, but then eventually, it led to the extinction of everything. The wolf population controls the sheep population, and the sheep population controls the grass. You would think that having too many sheep would be good for the wolves, but in actuality, this decreases the amount of grass available which eventually kills the sheep population decreasing the wolf population. Therefore, we had to find a balance between the factors. For example, if we had more wolves than sheep, then the sheep had to have a higher reproduction rate. These ties into the ant colony which exist only when they manage to successfully manipulate their environment result in a circle of life with everything being dependent on everything else. The actions of the sheep coincide with the future of the wolf population. The sheep population reproduces at a higher rate in order to meet the demands of the wolves that eat the sheep for food. This is similar to the ant colony that finds its members switching roles when the need arises. Without the wolves there is no control over the number of sheep. We witnessed this when a never ending reproduction of sheep started when the wolf population was not present. One thing we did not understand was why the sheep were so resilient. Despite turning off the grass and increasing the number of wolves, the sheep still continued to survive and reproduce.