An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management
Effective teaching of complex concepts relies heavily on the ability to establish relevance of topics and to engage students in a constructive dialogue. To connect students with abstract concepts and basic theory, instructors foster and facilitate an engaging teaching environment. Population modelin...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-02-01
|
| Series: | Insects |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/13/2/169 |
| _version_ | 1797479208603090944 |
|---|---|
| author | Christian Nansen |
| author_facet | Christian Nansen |
| author_sort | Christian Nansen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Effective teaching of complex concepts relies heavily on the ability to establish relevance of topics and to engage students in a constructive dialogue. To connect students with abstract concepts and basic theory, instructors foster and facilitate an engaging teaching environment. Population modeling is a cornerstone in applied entomology. However, it is also a topic and skill set that requires both basic mathematical and biological knowledge, and it may be perceived by students as being abstract and exceedingly theoretical. As a way to introduce entomology students at both that undergraduate and graduate levels to hands-on experience with population modeling, a well-established and widely used deterministic genetic population model is presented as an interactive teaching tool. Moreover, the general model describes three genotypes (SS = homozygous susceptible, SR = heterozygous, and RR = homozygous resistant) during 30 discrete and univoltine generations under a shared population density dependence (carrying capacity). Based on user inputs for each genotype (survival, fitness cost, reproductive rate, emigration, and immigration) and an initial resistance allele frequency, model outputs related to resistance evolution are produced. User inputs related to insecticide-based pest management (pest density action threshold, crop damage rate, insecticide treatment costs, and profit potential) can also be introduced to examine and interpret the basic economic effects of different insect pest management scenarios. The proposed model of resistance evolution and basic economics of pest management relies on a large number of important simplifications, so it may only have limited ability to predict the outcomes of real-world (commercial) scenarios. However, as a teaching tool and to introduce students to a well-known and widely used genetic population model structure, the interactive teaching tool is believed to have considerable utility and relevance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T21:42:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a9b21bab060d4406a2c10a13117eeddd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4450 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T21:42:24Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Insects |
| spelling | doaj.art-a9b21bab060d4406a2c10a13117eeddd2023-11-23T20:27:18ZengMDPI AGInsects2075-44502022-02-0113216910.3390/insects13020169An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest ManagementChristian Nansen0Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USAEffective teaching of complex concepts relies heavily on the ability to establish relevance of topics and to engage students in a constructive dialogue. To connect students with abstract concepts and basic theory, instructors foster and facilitate an engaging teaching environment. Population modeling is a cornerstone in applied entomology. However, it is also a topic and skill set that requires both basic mathematical and biological knowledge, and it may be perceived by students as being abstract and exceedingly theoretical. As a way to introduce entomology students at both that undergraduate and graduate levels to hands-on experience with population modeling, a well-established and widely used deterministic genetic population model is presented as an interactive teaching tool. Moreover, the general model describes three genotypes (SS = homozygous susceptible, SR = heterozygous, and RR = homozygous resistant) during 30 discrete and univoltine generations under a shared population density dependence (carrying capacity). Based on user inputs for each genotype (survival, fitness cost, reproductive rate, emigration, and immigration) and an initial resistance allele frequency, model outputs related to resistance evolution are produced. User inputs related to insecticide-based pest management (pest density action threshold, crop damage rate, insecticide treatment costs, and profit potential) can also be introduced to examine and interpret the basic economic effects of different insect pest management scenarios. The proposed model of resistance evolution and basic economics of pest management relies on a large number of important simplifications, so it may only have limited ability to predict the outcomes of real-world (commercial) scenarios. However, as a teaching tool and to introduce students to a well-known and widely used genetic population model structure, the interactive teaching tool is believed to have considerable utility and relevance.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/13/2/169resistance evolutionintegrated pest managementinsect population modeling |
| spellingShingle | Christian Nansen An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management Insects resistance evolution integrated pest management insect population modeling |
| title | An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management |
| title_full | An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management |
| title_fullStr | An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management |
| title_short | An Interactive Teaching Tool Describing Resistance Evolution and Basic Economics of Insecticide-Based Pest Management |
| title_sort | interactive teaching tool describing resistance evolution and basic economics of insecticide based pest management |
| topic | resistance evolution integrated pest management insect population modeling |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/13/2/169 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christiannansen aninteractiveteachingtooldescribingresistanceevolutionandbasiceconomicsofinsecticidebasedpestmanagement AT christiannansen interactiveteachingtooldescribingresistanceevolutionandbasiceconomicsofinsecticidebasedpestmanagement |