Research: Estimating Population Size Lesson Plan

Grade Level

6th-8th Grade

Objectives

Students will be able to describe the reasons that cetacean populations are
constantly fluctuating by participating in a class discussion. Students will also be able to explain how cetacean population estimates are calculated by completing a population sampling activity.

Florida Sunshine State Standards:

Science SC.G.2.3.3: The student knows that a brief change in the limited resources of an ecosystem may alter the size of a population or the average size of individual organisms and that long-term change may result in the elimination of animal and plant populations inhabiting the Earth.

National Standards:

Content Standard A (5-8) – Abilities Necessary to do Scientific Inquiry: Use
mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
Content Standard A (5-8) – Understandings about Scientific Inquiry: Different kinds of questions involve observing and describing objects, organisms, or events; some involve collecting specimens; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve discovery of new objects and phenomena; and some involve making models.
Content Standard C (5-8) – Populations and Ecosystems: A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time.