Fiddling with Estimating Populations -
Post-site Activities/Teacher Led
Grade Level: 7
Content Area: Science
and Math
Time to Complete: 1 hour
Title of
Lesson: Fiddling with Estimating
Populations
South Carolina State Standards
Addressed:
Science
|
II.B.1.a. |
Analyze the basic
chracteristics and needs
of living things. |
|
II.D.1.a. |
Describe characteristics
of populations. |
|
II.D.2.a. |
Analyze the role of
producers, consumers,
and decomposers in an
ecosystem. |
|
II.D.2.c. |
Analyze energy flow in a
food chain and its
relationship to the food
web. |
|
II.D.3.b. |
Analyze the effects of
overpopulation within an
ecosystem on the amount
of resources available. |
Math
| III.E. |
Connect patterns, relationships, and
functions with other aspects of mathematics and with other
disciplines |
| V.B. |
Estimate, construct, and use
measurement to describe and compare phenomena. |
| VI.D. |
Construct, read, and interpret
tables, graphs, charts, and other forms of displayed data. |
Lesson Description:
The following classroom activity was
designed to reinforce the material
covered in the field trip and for the
teachers to assess the knowledge gained
from being out on the field at
Huntington Beach State Park.
Focus Question For Students:
|
1. |
What interactions were observed
out in the salt marsh that would
contribute to an ecosystem?
|
|
|
crabs
feeding, interaction between
individuals, birds feeding on
crabs etc. |
|
2. |
How do you fit into the food
chain? Ask students what
food we get from the salt marsh.
|
|
|
We as
consumers eat a lot of things
that exist in the salt marsh
such as blue crabs, oysters,
shrimp and fish that have in
turn fed on smaller organisms,
producers, or even detritus. |
Teacher Preparation:
Complete steps in "Plan
Your Discovery", pre-site and on-site activities and return the
post-site materials with your evaluation form.
Procedures:
|
|
Set up your own
experiment.
Have students estimate the population of something else. See
if the students can implement the proper procedure when setting up
an experiment the second time. Plots, of course, do not have
to be as large as 1m x 1m - a ruler could be used this time.
Students can stay in their same groups if desired.
Possible ideas of what to estimate: |
|
1. |
blades of grass |
|
2. |
trees
|
|
3. |
flowers |
|
|
In the classroom, scatter items of
a known quantity on floor and estimate: |
|
1. |
pencils |
|
2. |
chalk |
|
3. |
erasers |
References:
Ballantine, Todd. Tidewater Treasure.
Columbia, S.C. University of South Carolina Press. 1991. |
