IB Maths HL Exploration Research

Stimulus: Do Bees Know Maths?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NtegAOQpSs
Brainstorming:

What is the optimal foraging time?

Connections Models
Marginal Value Theorem A variety of functions can be used to
Diminishing returns represent foraging and diminishing
Economics return scenarios

Use Calculus to verify that you have found the optimal solution
 Research

Optimal Foraging on Arbitrary Food Distributions and the Definition of Habitat Patches
Roger Arditi, and Bernard Dacorogna, The American Naturalist, Vol. 131, No. 6, June 1988
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/284825

The article considers models for the optimal allocation of foraging efforts assuming resources
are distributed in distinct patches. The authors discuss ways to find the optimal strategy for an
animal exploiting a resource and the optimal allocation of time to get to each point of the
habitat.

Optimal foraging: Some simple stochastic models

D. W. Stephens and Eric L. Charnov, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, Vol. 10, No. 4, July 1982
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00302814

The authors consider stochastic models of optimal foraging. They make a general model of
the processes of search, encounter, capture and handling of a resource. The authors present
a model that gives a graphical solution to the problem of optimal choices when forging and
discuss current trends in stochastic modeling of foraging behavior.

A general framework for understanding the effects of variability and interruptions on

foraging behaviour
John M. McNamara and Alasdair I. Houston, Acta Biotheoretica, Vol. 36, No. 1, March 1987
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00159228

The authors explore a general framework for analysing the effects of variability and the
effects of interruptions on foraging. The authors show that sensitivity to variability in amount
of energy gained is separate from sensitivity to variability in the time at which food is
obtained.