Kids really dug this activity. I loved the progression from the pizza samples to the M&M activity. Students really came away with a clear idea of how to design a sampling stragegy and what kinds of information can be gathered by evaluating samples. Will certainly do this again!
Mon, 05/27/2013 - 12:08
Aloha,
We had a lot of fun in our 6th grade classroom with this activity as well! It made for a great discussion, plenty of ah-ha moments and they liked the treats as well (I used m&m's as the not placed well and wrapped organic lollipops as the obvious). We dis Sampling Design as the third activity, thus making it sort of an assessment of the things they may have learned from the other two sampling techniques; random & abundance.
Sun, 05/12/2013 - 15:56
Hi Vicki! I totally agree. My students wanted to know why we can't do more activities like this one. More importantly I think they really got the big ideas about the challenges ecologist face when creating a design for sampling and how it is traditionally conducted. I will be doing this activity again as well.