Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello Science Buddies Experts!
This is fairly urgent, as my project proposal is due in 3 days. I am debating between research ideas this year for my freshman science fair, and I am having issues with both of my possible subjects. First, I was planning on doing a computer model of animal species population growth, i.e. your "Crystal Ball Math" project in the Science Fair Project Database. I like math and ecology so I thought it would be interesting to take some spin on it with an invasive or endangered species theme. The issue is that I'm trying to be original so I don't want to refer to the guide, but I really have no idea how to program a computer. I just thought it would be super cool to see, for example, what National Park a species would do better in, based on carrying capacity.
My second idea is a simpler rendition of some of the Drosophila sleep research scientists were doing about two years ago. I think there could be some good real-world connection to the socialization and sleep needs experiment. Research found that flies that were allowed to socialize needed to take longer naps in the day than solitary flies. The issue with this one is that although I have access to all of the materials/lab space I would need at school, I'm nervous that the experiment would take an extremely long time to complete. Is there another species that would be easier to test?
Which idea seems more plausible for my project this year? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated because I'm stuck in a rut and I only have three days to think it over. Thank you so much Science Buddies for helping me all these years! Happy Labor Day, by the way!

Drosophilia are often used in genetics studies. For ideas on experiments using drosophilia you might want to check the following website http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/un ... .01.x.html. and http://www.juliantrubin.com/fairproject ... y/fly.html. I do not know how much time you have your experiment, but the average lifespan of a female fly is 26 days and for a male is 33 days. Lifespan can vary depending on factors such as environment and crowding. Overcrowding can decrease the average lifespan of flies to 12 days. A past study called Waking Experience Affects Sleeping Need in Drosophilia by Paul Shaw (2006) found that social environment affects the amount of sleep taken by fruit flies. You might read this study to obtain ideas for developing your methodology. Here is a link to a blog on the paper: http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2006/10/2 ... ects-slee/. The article was published in Science Magazine.

Regarding your other idea for experiments. I would recommend reading "Human Carrying Capacity is determined by Food Availability" by Russell Hopfenberg http://panearth.org/WVPI/Papers/CarryingCapacity.pdf. The study uses a logistic equation to determine human carrying capacity population estimates based on FAO food production data. You could modify the study's methodology to better suit your experiment. Instead of using food production data, you could use food availability data for your species of interest.

Lastly, you might want to post your question to the mathematics subject forum. There you might receive more information from those more knowledgeable of math.

I hope this helps.