Monarch Butterflies on

10.A.2 Analyze and interpret data to draw conclusions about how changes in resource availability affect populations in the short and long term.

10.A.2 Analyze and interpret data to draw conclusions about how changes in resource availability affect populations in the short and long term.

Prior to the first question on the assessment, there’s a graph that shows how the area taken up by monarchs changed over time. As before, consider discussing the axes of this graph with students to draw focus to what a point on this graph means. By reviewing the axes of the graph or summarizing a specific point in words, students can make clearer connections between the visual patterns they see on the graph and the physical meaning of the data in the context of the ecosystem. Students may need similar support interpreting the final graph on this assessment--in this case, reviewing the axes and scale of the graph can also help draw a distinction between what’s being graphed in this example compared to the earlier graph before question 1. Specifically, this graph covers a greater amount of time. This graph also has a trendline that shows the overall shape of the population change. Consider reviewing the idea of a trendline with students and clarify that a trendline shows the overall pattern of change in a data set on a graph.

In the table in the middle of the assessment, students are prompted to look for patterns of change in the amount of milkweed. Consider asking students to use arrows and labels to note the change between years on the table. For example, they could label the change from 2009 to 2010 as “+2,500” because there were 2,500 (3,750 - 1,250) more milkweed plants per hectare in 2010 compared to 2009. This may help students see patterns of change between the points in the table that might not be apparent to those who see values in a table as discrete points rather than part of larger patterns.

Debrief findings from the assessment. Once students have had time to finish, show slide T. Ask students to share what happened to the amount of milkweed and the population of monarchs in the assessment. As students share, have them add their findings to complete the bottom row of the table.

Organism

Resource the organism needs

How did the amount of this resource change?

Overall, how did the population of this organism change?

Orangutans

Rainforest fruit trees

• The amount of rainforest fruit trees went down because people cut them down to grow oil palm trees.
• The number of orangutans went down, too, because they didn’t have the food and space they needed to survive.

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Monarch butterflies

Milkweed

• The amount of milkweed has gone down over time because people are planting farms where there used to be prairies.
• The number of monarchs has decreased over time because they don’t have as much milkweed for food and to lay their eggs.

For some students, particularly students with learning differences, below-grade-level reading, or students who are emergent multilingual learners, this assessment may require more time than that which is provided for this lesson, because there is a heavy reading component. Consider allowing students to finish this assessment as home learning or providing extra time for these students to demonstrate their full understanding. These students would benefit from reading the introductory text and item prompts together, and then allowing them to ask clarifying questions.