Knowing we all agreed to use a cup of water as a dog without "heartworm" at the start, we knew that measuring what value it had before it may have "gotten" heartworm would be important for us in figuring out if a dog got it or not. After everyone analyzed their results, some students were upset that they didn't notice much change, while others witnessed a lot of dogs getting infected! This prompted us to think about why few dogs might get infected while there may be instances where many were infected:
We went back to the model we first developed, claiming that a mosquito could be the instigator of passing the heartworm from dog to dog. We began to see that our data for many situations could continue to support our model:
With all this agreement, we were beginning to wonder how we could figure out what was happening at the time Buddy came to Canine County. Was what transpired over the next four years typical there? What was the area like that Buddy came from?
Mrs. Brinza found that there is actual data collection on heartworm...in fact, it's called heartworm incidence. We looked at a map from 1986--long before Buddy's birth or infection, but it was really interesting to see what this map could tell us!
Mrs. Brinza found that there is actual data collection on heartworm...in fact, it's called heartworm incidence. We looked at a map from 1986--long before Buddy's birth or infection, but it was really interesting to see what this map could tell us!