8th Grade Lesson Plan

Context: Fish Population

The focus of this context is to have students explore fish populations in a lake through a simulator. Several important areas within the 8thgrade Idaho Content and Practice Standards can be addressed through this context.

Essential Question: You get to take the family fishing for the weekend! You have the all-important choice of traveling to Anderson Ranch or CJ Strike. Which lake should you choose to visit and why?

Guiding Questions / Prompts

  1. Which lake has more bass? How do you know?

Your family loves to bass fish. How can we determine which lake has a better bass population for our trip? Investigating this question will allow students to collect, represent and analyze bivariate data from the Fish Tagging tool.

  1. Which lake are you more likely to ‘limit out’ on bass?

We are only allowed to keep 6 basses per day. Which lake has a higher chance of us catching our limit?Investigating this question will cause students to take a deeper look at the data they collect.

  1. How can we organize the data from the simulator to support our lake choice?

Students are expected to create two-way tables and calculate relative frequencies as a method of organization and analysis. Joint, marginal and conditional frequencies can all help answer our essential question.

  1. What visualizations can we use to support our lake choice?

Students are also expected to visualize the data using a variety of pie charts, dot plots and bar graphs.

Sample Lesson Plan

Mathematical Standards and Practices

Though a full range of 8th grade standards can be targeted through use of this simulator, this sample lesson plan and instructional sequence targets the following:

  • 8.SP Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.

8.SP.4Understand that patterns of association can also be seen inbivariate categorical data by displaying frequencies and relative frequencies in a two-way table. Construct and interpret a two-way tablesummarizing data on two categorical variables collected from the samesubjects. Use relative frequencies calculated for rows or columns todescribe possible association between the two variables.

  • Mathematical practice standards

1.Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

2.Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

3.Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4.Model with mathematics.

5.Use appropriate tools strategically.

Material for the Lessons

  1. Students will need access to an electronic device that has internet access (e.g., smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.).
  2. Fish Tagging Simulator, URL:
  3. Printed copies of student handout, URL:
  4. Poster board, construction paper or other for students to display their data and findings.

Instructional Sequence

  1. Break students into groups.
  2. Introduce the Fish Population Simulator. This app simulates the “sample-tag-resample” method for estimating the population of fish of various types in a lake.
  3. The simulator creates a random number of fish of various types in a lake. In other words, a new lake is created every time someone visits this page.
  4. Students can click the resample button can click the Resample Fishbutton(under step 2) multiple times. This simulates gathering another set of fish from the current lake to find the counts of tagged and non-tagged fish.
  5. Students should ‘create’ two lakes by visiting the site twice and collect multiple data points at each lake through the Resample Fish button.
  6. Model all features and ensure everyone understands how it works.
  7. Pose essential question.
  8. Ask students to answer the essential question and display their results in a poster.
  9. Briefly discuss data collection methods and possible methods for data presentation.
  10. Distribute student handout.
  11. Monitor student data collection.
  12. Press student to use the two-way tables on the student handout as a method of answering the essential question.
  13. Speak with each group individually about possible graphical displays for their data.
  14. Possible graphs could include pie charts, dot plots, and/or bar graphs.
  15. Possible press questions.
  16. What process did you use to justify your answers to the essential question?
  17. Which graphs do you plan on using and why?
  18. Based on your data collected, what would you recommend the daily bass catch limit be set at?
  19. What impact might a daily catch limit increase or decrease have on the overall fish population?
  20. If a daily catch limit was increased or decreased, how often would you recommend resampling the lake to determine its effect?
  21. Have students conduct a gallery walk to present theirfindings.
  22. Divide the groups into two and have one group present / answer questions while the other is walking from presentation to presentation; then switch roles.
  23. During the presentations, use the rubric below to grade student work.

Scoring Rubric

Excellent
3 / Average
2 / Limited
1
Analyzing / The group shows a strong relationship between data and claim / The group shows a weak relationship between data and claim / The group shows no relationship between data and claim
Researching / The group has documented research / The group has no research
Presentation / The presentation has numerous graphs and data. Presentation is well organized / The presentation has some use of evidence, but limiteddata and graphs. Presentation is well organized / The presentation is unclear with no organization
Calculations / Majority of calculations are correct / Calculation process is correct with some mathematical errors / Minimal or no calculations are correct

Student Examples

All students with these examples should be pressed on how they made the connection between their data and their conclusion.