OpenSciEd 7.5, Lesson 7: Orangutans in Protected Areas Data Task
Task
Use this Tuva Data Task with OpenSciEd Unit 7.5, Lesson 7. Tuva has provided an alternative to the StoryMap introduced in Part 2 and has transformed the static Orangutan Populations in Protected Areas in Indonesia data table into a dynamic data experience. This Data Task is designed to be used in conjunction with the OpenSciEd Teacher Guide. It is not a standalone lesson. Where This Investigation Fits into the Storyline During the last lesson, students decided they needed information about how many orangutans live in tropical rainforests that have not been impacted by oil palm plantations, as that is where we anticipate finding “typical” numbers of orangutans. Now, students will look at real-world data from four “undisturbed” tropical rainforest areas to identify a typical number of orangutans. When to Use Tuva Day One Complete Part 1, the Navigation Routine, outside of Tuva. (Use page 7 of the OpenSciEd Teacher Edition.) Begin Part 2 outside of Tuva as well. Share and discuss the video about using drones to estimate orangutan populations. Then, when instructed to have students open the StoryMap, have them open Tuva instead. Students will get to know basic information about the four protected areas using a dataset and the Tuva Tools. Students will complete the rest of Part 2, all of Part 3, and most of Part 4 on Tuva, working in small groups. (The corresponding steps in Tuva are Steps 1–9.) Instead of looking at static maps and data tables, students will use Tuva's dynamic data tools to explore how population counts relate to habitat area, calculate the number of orangutans per square kilometer, and pose explanations for differences across protected areas. Teachers may opt to do portions of the Tuva Data Task as a whole group. Make a judgment call based on your students' comfort with calculating ratios. (Refer to pages 8–13 of the Teacher Edition.) Student groups will stop and wait for the rest of the group after completing Step 9 in Tuva. Once everyone is ready, work with the students to reframe the lesson question so that it explores the ratio of orangutans to given area. (Instructions for facilitating the reframing discussion are on page 13 of the Teacher Edition.) Afterward, close Tuva for the day and go directly into the Navigation Routine. Students will have already calculated all of the ratios using the Tuva Tools. Don't forget to add *population* to your class word wall! Day Two Engage in the Navigation Routine together. Then have students open Tuva and record the agreed-upon, reframed lesson question in Tuva. Complete Part 7 in Tuva. In lieu of the having students mark up the paper copy of Orangutan Populations in Protected Areas in Indonesia data table, they will create a graph of the data in Tuva and use digital annotation tools to mark it up. What Comes Next During Part 8, the Building Understandings Discussion, students can use data visualizations they have created to communicate about patterns they noticed. During Part 9, teachers should project a Tuva graph like this one. Use it to remind students that each orangutan needs a lot of space. Also, point out that there is still some level of variability in population density among the four protected areas. These two observations, in tandem, can help motivate the need to explore how food affects the amount of space needed. ![This dataset has the title OpenSciEd 7.5, L7: Orangutan Populations Dataset. It has 12 data points \(or cases\) and 7 attributes. There are 1 categorical attributes and 6 numerical attributes. The 1 categorical attributes are: Protected Area. The 6 numerical attributes are: Latitude \(approximate\), Longitude \(approximate\), Area of Habitat \(square km\), Year, Orangutan Population, Orangutans per sq km. The plotting area has 12 cases organized in a Box and Dot Plot. The x-axis has the categorical att]100%
During the last lesson, your class decided that, if you wanted to figure out the "typical" number of orangutans, you needed information from rainforests that have not been impacted by oil palm plantations. During this Data Task, you will use real orangutan survey data from multiple protected areas to seek an answer to the following question: How many orangutans typically live in the tropical rainforest? From the video, you learned about the latest technologies being used to estimate how many orangutans live in the rainforest. The data you will examine was not gathered by drones. It was collected by multiple groups of scientists between the years of 1993 and 2020. To count the orangutans, researchers walked through the jungle or flew in helicopters to spot the sleeping nests the orangutans build high up in the trees. Click Next to begin exploring the data.
Topics and standards: Life Science, MS-LS2-1, MS-LS2-2, LS2.A, Asking Questions & Defining Problems, Analyzing & Interpreting Data, Using Mathematics & Computational Thinking, Grade 7, Interpret Patterns, Identifying Relationships, OpenSciEd, 3.1.6-8.I, 3.1.6-8.J