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Lanny
Chambers' First Hummingbirds
(Back to Student Page)
Math
Challenges (upper grades)
Depending
on the math skills of your students, consider doing one of the
following:
-
Challenge
them to find the average, range, and median arrival dates on
their own. Then have them make their prediction for this year.
(Devising a problem-solving method is a great math exercise!)
-
If
students need more support, hand out the Calculating
the Mean Student Worksheet (HTML
or PDF).
(This step-by-step example shows just one way to solve the problem.)
-
You can also w ork
through the problem together using the Calculating the
Mean SAMPLE Worksheet (HTML
or PDF).
It shows how to work the problem using data from 1994-2003.
After working through the sample, students can recalculate,
including the arrival dates since 2003.
Journaling
and Discussion Questions (with answers)
- What
factors do you think can affect when Lanny's hummingbirds arrive
each year?
(Storms and extended severe temperatures could directly harm
or kill individual hummingbirds. These same factors could also
affect the availability of nectar and insects, which are important
Rubythroat food sources. Also, a returning hummingbird may have
the same "clock" for migration, but a bird that's new
to Lanny's territory might have slightly different timing.)
- Based
on Lanny Chambers's data, what general conclusions can you draw
about hummingbirds' arrival in their breeding grounds in Missouri?
(They generally arrive around the same date each year. Changes
in daylenth [photoperiod] trigger hormones that give Rubythroats
the urge to migrate. Weather may vary from year to year, but daylength,
which changes consistently, is the main influence on migration.)
- Why
do you think scientists value the practice of long-term record
keeping? What types of things can they learn from doing this?
(They can study how short- or long-term changes in weather,
climate, food availability, and other factors influence migrations.)
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Hummingbirds
