Where
Do Your Robins Go for the Winter?
Discussion
Questions
(Interpreting
Banding Data from Your Region)
Review
the banding data
you gathered and respond to these questions:
-
Do the robins
from your region all go to the same place?
- How large
is the region where robins from your state/province have been found
in the wintertime? (Mark all locations on a map and measure the area.)
- How does
the winter climate of that region compare with yours? (You'll find maps
on the National Weather Service's U.S.
Climate Prediction Center site.)
- How many
miles did each robin travel?
- What is
the average distance a robin from your region might migrate?
- Name the
other states/provinces whose robins might spend the winter with your
robins.
- Which
robin in your state/province lived the longest after being banded?
- Before
drawing conclusions, scientists always look at the methods of data collection.
Can you identify any biases this method may have on the results?
- These
data were collected in the 1930s-1960s. How might this affect the conclusions
you draw from the data?
- Where
might robins that spend the winter in Alabama or Georgia go to nest
in the summer? (See Lesson: "Whose Robins Might
These Be?")
- Write
a scientific paper based explaining what you discovered by analyzing
the data. (Link to Lesson: "Scientist
Says")
Try
This!
Use this online mapping server to map where one of your robins was found.
Mark the location with a stickpin:
National
Science Education Standards
- Use data
to conduct a reasonable explanation.
- Communicate
investigations and explanations.
- Scientists
use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they
are trying to answer.
- Use math
in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
- The behavior
of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger)
and by external cues (such as a change in the environment).
National
Geography Standards
- How to
use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies
to acquire, process, and report information.
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