Names: _______________________________________________________________________________Period: ______
BIRTH and DEATH RATE LAB ACTIVITY
Materials Required
One (1) Small cup labelled “DEATHS”
One (1) Large cup labelled “BIRTHS”
One (1) Large Beaker
One (1) Plastic Tray
One (1) Green Container (labelled with your table number)
Procedure
1. Gather all items on the materials list and bring them to your group’s table.
2. Fill the Green Container halfway up with water and bring it to your group’s table.
3. Place the Large Beaker on the Plastic Tray.
 The Large Beaker represents your habitat.
4. Fill the cup labelled BIRTHS with water from the Green Container and pour it into the Large Beaker.
 Keep track of how many BIRTH cups you add to the beaker.
 This represents the amount of new births of organisms in your habitat
5. Take the cup labelled DEATHS and fill it with water from the BEAKER
 Keep track of how many DEATH cups you TAKE AWAY from the beaker (pour this water into the green
container.)
 This represents the amount of organisms that died in your habitat.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the Large Beaker overflows slightly.
7. How many BIRTH cups were added to the beaker?
_____________________________
8. How many DEATH cups were removed from the beaker? _____________________________
9. Pour out water from the Large Beaker so 750 ml of water remains in the Large Beaker.
10. How can you maintain the level in the Large Beaker (your habitat) while adding BIRTHS to the beaker and taking
away DEATHS from the beaker?
11. What did you learn about birth and death rates from doing this activity?
12. Empty water the into the sinks. Dry off all materials and return them to where you got them. Dry off the desk.
Turn in this paper.