In this exercise you will apply your knowledge of population estimation to estimate the population of freshly harvested wild corn.

SAFETY : wild corn may look innocent enough but they might nip suddenly  if you handle them roughly! You may also wear goggles if you feel threatened.
Ethics : remember to carefully release the kernels back into the holding tub to avoid unnecessary mortality.

Procedure : in the holding tub there is wild population of corn kernels who's total population number N is known only to the teacher.
500 of the kernels were captured and with approval of the CCAC were marked with a red food dye. The red dye stains in areas of the kernel where there is a break in the seed coat and thus the staining is highly variable but obvious if you carefully inspect each one with care.

Hints >

> Poor identification of marked kernels will lead to poor results.
> A small sample size will probably yield a less accurate estimation (a handful is fine)
> the averaging of several captured samples will lead to more valid results
recall >    total# marked [M]         =           # recaptured [m]
                           total population [N]              size of second sample [n]

Now when you get a moment get on your hip waders and go fishing for corn and estimate to the best of your ability the size of the corn  population.

                                   
Click the corn for your submission form for handing in.