Which organism is most likely to have a type III survivorship curve?

Question

A.  an oak tree
B.  a domestic dog
C.  corn in a farmer's field
D.  Paramecium


Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?

What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content:
What do you already know about the characteristics of a type III survivorship curve? What other information is related to the question? 


Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

A.  an oak tree

Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
Identify an organism that exhibits the characteristics of a type III survivorship curve.

What type of thinking is required?
This is an analysis question, you will need to break the question down into its components in order to get to the answer. You will need to figure out which species has a type III survivorship curve.


Gather Content:
What do you already know about the characteristics of a type III survivorship curve? What other information is related to the question? 
Paramecia reproduce by mitosis, which only produces two new paramecia. The dog and the corn produce a smaller number of offspring.


Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
One single oak tree produces thousands of acorns, sometimes up to 10,000 acorns if it is particularly good year. There is a huge attrition rate, only a tiny fraction of the acorns successfully germinate and only a tiny fraction of the young trees survive to be large mature oaks. The oaks obviously follow at type II curve with very high juvenile mortality.


Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
Were you able to select the correct answer? You needed to to break down each choice and figure out what would be the reproductive strategy for each species thereby being able to identify the one that exhibits a type III curve.