Any Science Education Article 2

Name Monica Camacho

Submitted on 11/1/2005 7:06:53 PM

Topic: Any2

 Greene,J. S. & Tamme, T. (2001). The Ups and Downs of Frogs. Science Activities, 38, 12-16.

Summary

This article is about an activity dealing with frogs. Greene and Tamme used an activity to help students understand the decline in amphibian populations. The activity focuses on the natural fluctuations in populations with species such as the Harlequin frog. Students were to simulate the increase and decrease populations in frogs by using beans that represent the frogs. The activity included activity cards that guide students what will happen to the frogs in order to determine how many beans to take away or add. The activity cards deal with situations that can affect amphibians such as, habitat loss due to humans, chemicals, ultraviolet radiation, and several other factors included in the activity cards. The students were given 100 beans to start out with. They are given two situation cards-human-caused factors cards and natural-factors cards. Students took turns reading the cards and doing what is told on the cards. Then they were needed to add or subtract the beans to the population depending on what each card says. After the students were done with the cards, they were given questions to ponder with their group. The questions asked if there were any changes in their population. They were to graphs the changes and compare the results with the rest of the class. The article gave the history of amphibians as well as history of amphibian deformities.

Reaction

I think this idea of an activity is really great but it lack curtain factors. I really needed to read some sample questions on the activity cards, so I could get a better picture of how the activity is constructed. Using beans and charting the changes based on the situation of a frog is a great concept. I just need to see more of the activity. I learned a lot about deformities with amphibians in this article, though. I liked that they added this material in the lesson format. Deformities have been reported in 44 states and that over 60% of amphibians have some type of deformity. This activity gives students a picture of how a population can fluctuate by natural causes and human causes.