Math in the Ocean
Counting the Catch
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/7/5/12753486/3473283.jpg?293)
Essential Question:
#3 - How can technology help us explore the ocean?
Common Core Standards:
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
3. Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by
reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.
Activity:
Before beginning the lesson, teacher will review with students what they have learned about ocean ecosystems and population changes in their other classes. Teacher will mention the recent oil spill and discuss how it affected the marine populations near the coast. Concluding that the populations obviously decreased, the teacher will then guide the students toward brainstorming how marine biologists and other scientists keep track of populations under the sea.Teacher will introduce the basic process of the capture-recapture tagging method, visualizing the key points on the board.
Students will then break up into small groups to simulate their own capture and recapture activity. Teacher will give each group a tub full of 200 regular Goldfish crackers, a separate container of Goldfish pretzels, and a large cup to act as a net to scoop the fish out.Unaware of how many regular fish are in the tub, students will scoop out a full “net” and “tag” all of these fish by replacing them with pretzels, and recording the total number they tagged.They will then redistribute the tagged fish into the original population, noting that the number of the population hasn’t changed at all. After shaking the tub to randomly disperse the tagged fish, students will scoop another net and record on data sheets the total number captured and how many of those are tagged.They will do this at least three times until their data sheets are full.
After completing the trials, students will analyze their data to estimate the total fish population. Using proportional reasoning, they can determine the approximate ratio of tagged fish to total fish in each trial, which should indicate the ratio of tagged fish to total fish in the whole population. They will evaluate the ratios in fraction form as well as decimal form in order to find the average ratio among all three trials. Question prompts will be attached to their data sheets for guidance. Each group will come up with a final estimation of the fish population and compare with the rest of the class.
#3 - How can technology help us explore the ocean?
Common Core Standards:
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
3. Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by
reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.
Activity:
Before beginning the lesson, teacher will review with students what they have learned about ocean ecosystems and population changes in their other classes. Teacher will mention the recent oil spill and discuss how it affected the marine populations near the coast. Concluding that the populations obviously decreased, the teacher will then guide the students toward brainstorming how marine biologists and other scientists keep track of populations under the sea.Teacher will introduce the basic process of the capture-recapture tagging method, visualizing the key points on the board.
Students will then break up into small groups to simulate their own capture and recapture activity. Teacher will give each group a tub full of 200 regular Goldfish crackers, a separate container of Goldfish pretzels, and a large cup to act as a net to scoop the fish out.Unaware of how many regular fish are in the tub, students will scoop out a full “net” and “tag” all of these fish by replacing them with pretzels, and recording the total number they tagged.They will then redistribute the tagged fish into the original population, noting that the number of the population hasn’t changed at all. After shaking the tub to randomly disperse the tagged fish, students will scoop another net and record on data sheets the total number captured and how many of those are tagged.They will do this at least three times until their data sheets are full.
After completing the trials, students will analyze their data to estimate the total fish population. Using proportional reasoning, they can determine the approximate ratio of tagged fish to total fish in each trial, which should indicate the ratio of tagged fish to total fish in the whole population. They will evaluate the ratios in fraction form as well as decimal form in order to find the average ratio among all three trials. Question prompts will be attached to their data sheets for guidance. Each group will come up with a final estimation of the fish population and compare with the rest of the class.
Dinner Time!
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/7/5/12753486/9002228.jpg?371)
Essential Question:
#1 - What are the patterns of physical changes in aquatic environments?
Common Core Standards:
Expressions and Equations
Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
6. Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when
solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a
variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the
purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.
7. Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving
equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p,q
and x are all non-negative rational numbers.
Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
9. Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to
express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable.
Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation.
Activity:
Class will begin by viewing a one-minute video on YouTube entitled Marine Life: What do sharks eat? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Dh-rWsPiw). In this clip, a marine biologist explains that sharks do not simply eat whatever they come across (as many people believe), but that their diets are very specialized depending on their species and habitat. Teacher tells students that they will be learning about the eating habits of six different types of sharks in class today.
Students will count off into six groups and teacher will assign each group one of the six shark types: nurse shark, lemon shark, tiger shark, brown shark, great white shark, or hammerhead shark. Given data about what and how much each type of shark eats, students will create one poster per group displaying their shark’s weekly eating habits. With guidance from an activity sheet with specific questions and formulas, students will calculate the percentages of each type of prey the shark consumes, determine the weight of its weekly consumption and how much the shark grows, and convert the data from metric to English units for final answers.
Each group will be given access to create a pie chart on Math Warehouse (http://chartmaker.mathwarehouse.com/create-pie-chart) to summarize the variety of food each shark eats. They will also create a table and corresponding graph to plot their shark’s growth over time and use the graph to estimate its weight at different stages of life. This may take multiple classes to complete in a neat and creative manner. The posters will be displayed in the hallway as students complete them to share with the rest of Team Triton!
#1 - What are the patterns of physical changes in aquatic environments?
Common Core Standards:
Expressions and Equations
Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
6. Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when
solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a
variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the
purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.
7. Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving
equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p,q
and x are all non-negative rational numbers.
Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
9. Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to
express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable.
Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation.
Activity:
Class will begin by viewing a one-minute video on YouTube entitled Marine Life: What do sharks eat? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Dh-rWsPiw). In this clip, a marine biologist explains that sharks do not simply eat whatever they come across (as many people believe), but that their diets are very specialized depending on their species and habitat. Teacher tells students that they will be learning about the eating habits of six different types of sharks in class today.
Students will count off into six groups and teacher will assign each group one of the six shark types: nurse shark, lemon shark, tiger shark, brown shark, great white shark, or hammerhead shark. Given data about what and how much each type of shark eats, students will create one poster per group displaying their shark’s weekly eating habits. With guidance from an activity sheet with specific questions and formulas, students will calculate the percentages of each type of prey the shark consumes, determine the weight of its weekly consumption and how much the shark grows, and convert the data from metric to English units for final answers.
Each group will be given access to create a pie chart on Math Warehouse (http://chartmaker.mathwarehouse.com/create-pie-chart) to summarize the variety of food each shark eats. They will also create a table and corresponding graph to plot their shark’s growth over time and use the graph to estimate its weight at different stages of life. This may take multiple classes to complete in a neat and creative manner. The posters will be displayed in the hallway as students complete them to share with the rest of Team Triton!
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