Grade Level:
Elementary, Middle School, High School
Ecological Concepts: Behavior,
Food preference
Arizona Science Standards: Science as Inquiry; Life
Science
Materials:
1) Thin sticks at least 1.5 m long for fishing poles
2) Pieces of copper wire, at least 1 m long to use as fishing line.
Twist wire around the end of the pole to make the fishing line.
(Note: You could use string or fishing line, but those would
allow the lure to move quite a bit, making it more difficult to
watch the lure and fish behavior.)
3) Collection of items such as string, cotton, paper, rubber bands,
aluminum foil, clay, colored paper, wire, cork, small weights, shiny
materials, etc. These items (or others) will be attached to the
end of the fishing line. Lures need to be less than 0.5 cm in length
and width.
4) Writing/drawing materials
5) Meter stick
6) Timing device (watch, stopwatch)
BACKGROUND
Fish feed on zooplankton,
algae and plants, or insects and smaller fish. Fish also avoid danger
such as predators. What are fish attracted to
and what scares them away? This activity can be used to test fish
behavior and fish preference for various items.
GUIDED INQUIRY
Observation/Exploration Period Observe fish behavior.
Some behaviors and patterns to look for are where the fish are found,
how long they spend in an area, what depth of water they are in, what
they appear to be eating, and what makes them swim away.
Group Discussion and Question Period Are fish at
the surface, or deeper in the water? Are they near the edge of the
pond, in open water, or in among the plants? How much time do they
spend in each area of the pond? Do they appear to be eating? What
makes them swim away? What attracts fish to an area of the pond? What
do fish like to eat? Do different species of fish prefer different
foods or places to be in the pond?
Important aspects of guided inquiry are encouraging students
to generate multiple hypotheses, and letting students
make decisions about what data are important and create their own
data sheets.
Keeping these ideas in mind, the sample in the box below illustrates
how ONE OF MANY possible investigations around this topic might develop.
Sample Hypothesis: Let's
use the question "What attracts fish?" The hypothesis
could be "Fish are attracted to shiny objects because they can
see them better."
Sample Experiment Design: Use the "fishing
poles" to present lures of different degrees of shininess (dull,
a little shiny, very shiny) to the fish. The independent variable
is the lure type and the dependent variable
is the behavior of the fish. The experimental
unit will be locations around the pond. Replication
is accomplished by testing each lure type at more
than one location in the pond.
The categories of fish behavior will be: Bites at the lure (Bite),
Looks at the lure for at least five seconds before swimming
away (Look), Ignores the lure completely (Ignore), and Scared
away immediately (Scared). The variables to be controlled
are: depth the lure is submerged, amount of time the lure is
in the water, size of lures, and color of lures. If data are
taken over multiple days, always do it at the same time of day,
and when the weather is about the same as well. Only shininess
of the lures will vary. Groups of two will work together.
Sample Prediction: More fish will bite the
shiniest lure than the other two lures.
Record Results: Record Bites, Looks, Ignores,
and Scares on a table using pictures or
tally marks. Make notes of interesting behaviors.
Sample Analysis of Data and Presentation: Count
up the number of times each behavior occurred. Make a bar
graph of the numbers, with lure type on the horizontal
axis and number of times for each behavior on the vertical axis.
For students who can divide, calculate the average
number of times for each behavior for each lure type separately.
Graph the average number on the vertical axis.
Discussion: Was your hypothesis supported?
Did fish bite the shiniest lure more often then the less shiny
or dull lures? If yes, go on to test other hypotheses. If not,
why not? What did happen? Why? This is a great opportunity to
revise your hypothesis and do another test. |
MORE:
1) Elementary:
(a) Use only natural objects as lures.
(b) Compare the reactions of different species
of fish to the lures.
2) Middle School:
(a) Find the mean,
median,
mode
and range
of the data.
3) High School:
(a) Calculate the variance
and standard
deviation of the averaged data.
(b) Perform a T-test
of species richness. (T-test is a standard statistics test comapring
means
of two treatment groups.) Perform an ANOVA
when comparing three or more treatment groups. |
