Due: Your report must be submitted by 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 28. Please note that I will be away from BU on Wednesday, September 27, so do not wait until the last minute to ask your questions regarding this project.

Group project: Your group is limited to at most four members. Once a group begins work on the project, its membership cannot change. Consequently establishing your group must be your first step in this project. Each group will submit one report, and all members of the group will receive the same grade for this project.

Goals:

1. To get experience modeling real data.
2. To get experience doing numerical work with differential equations.

The Gompertz Model of Population Growth: The Gompertz model of population growth is

1. Discuss the assumptions that form the basis of this model.
2. Using the population data for the US population given in Section 1.1, estimate the parameters a and b.
3. Given these parameters, what does the model predict about the long-term behavior of solutions?

Exponential and Logistic Population Models: In class you were assigned a specific state whose population growth you should model. The data is given in Table 1.11 on page 136 of our text. For this part of the project, you should address the questions that are raised in Lab 1.3 on page 135 of our text.

Your report: Your report should be no longer than four typewritten pages, and it should address all of the questions mentioned above. You may provide as many illustrations from the computer as you wish, but the relevance of each illustration to your report must be evident. Illustrations are not included in the four-page limit, but reports that contain superfluous illustrations will receive lower grades. (Please remember that, although one good illustration may be worth 1000 words, 1000 illustrations are worth nothing.) Examples of good reports done here at BU in previous semesters are available for inspection in my office.

Academic Conduct: Your work and conduct in this course are governed by the CAS Academic Conduct Code. This code is designed to promote high standards of academic honesty and integrity as well as fairness. Copies of the code are available in CAS Room 105, and it is your responsibility to know and follow the provisions of that code. In particular, all work that you submit in this course must be your original work. For example, the computations that you do for your report as well as the text of your report must be original to your group. All group members are responsible for all aspects of the report. Any cases of suspected academic misconduct will be referred to the CAS Student Academic Conduct Committee.