Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: Introduction - Unsustainable fishing

30 minutes

Part B: Understanding the problem - By-catch data over time

20 minutes

Part C: Addressing the problem

15 minutes

Part D: Share and reflect

Learning intentions:

Students will:

plot data on by-catch and investigate what might happen if fishing practices changed.

Success criteria:

Students can:

plot linear relationships using a table of values with real data
use internet research to find relevant statistics
understand the problem with by-catch and how it can be reduced.

Part A: Introduction - Unsustainable fishing

Step 1

Ask students if they have wondered where the fish they eat comes from? Have they wondered what sea or ocean it was caught in? How was it caught? How many fish were caught?

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be using maths to investigate some of these questions and explore a problem that greatly affects our oceans: by-catch and overfishing.

Step 2

Watch the following clip as a class (also found on the Student Worksheet). As students watch, invite them to respond to the questions below and record their answers on the Student Worksheet.

What is unsustainable fishing?
What statistics are used to describe the problem of unsustainable fishing?
List some of the impacts, both positive and negative, of factory fishing. Categorise your answers into social, economic and environmental impacts.

Unsustainable fishing (https://vimeo.com/1056608479/d7c167898e)

After the clip, discuss with students their responses to the questions.

Step 3

Explain to students that the scale of the modern fishing industry has become enormous. Nets large enough to haul a dozen 747 aeroplanes trawl behind factory fishing vessels, scooping up anything in their path. A huge amount of by-catch (unwanted species such as endangered sharks, seals, whales, turtles and dolphins) are thrown back into the sea – dying or dead. By-catch occurs when marine animals who are not targeted in fishing are caught anyway by getting tangled and captured by hooks, nets and other fishing gear.

Read the following statistic to students:

Science estimate that since the 1990's at least 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals have been killed around the world each year as a result of by-catch.

Source: Keledjian, A., et. al. (2014). Wasted Catch: unsolved problems in U.S Fisheries, Oceania.

Help students to put this statistic into perspective, by asking questions such as:

How many students go to our school? So how many schools would be needed to make up 650,000?
- Suggested answer: If the school has 700 students, then 929 schools would be needed. This is because 650,000/700 = 928.5
If 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals have been killed each year from by-catch, how would we work out how many have been killed up to now?
- Suggested answer: It’s been 27 years since 1990, so in total, there have been 650,000x27 = 1 7,550,000 killed.

Part B: Understanding the problem - By-catch data over time

Step 1

As students should now see, by-catch causes enormous harm to marine life over time. Certain types of maths, including graphing, provide really useful tools for understanding exactly what is happening. As a class, go through Part 2 of the Student Worksheet, whereby students explore two scenarios examining by-catch over time. They are then asked to create a line graph for each scenario on a Cartesian Plane.

If students are unsure about the activity, ask the following clarifying questions:

What is the name we give to the tables in Question 1?
- Suggested answer: A table of values
What’s on the x-axis?
- Suggested answer: Time
What's on the y-axis of each graph?
- Suggested answer: Number of animals killed

Step 2

Give students time to complete Part 2 of the Student Worksheet, either individually or in pairs, and then briefly go through the solutions.

Part C: Addressing the problem

Step 1

Explain to students that the real purpose of this lesson isn’t to just understand why by-catch is a problem, but to use maths to understand what can be done to solve the problem.

Relay the following challenge to students:

“We know that by-catch causes enormous harm to ocean life each year. I wonder what would happen if actions were taken to reduce by-catch? How much marine life could be saved?”

Step 2

To address this challenge, students will work in groups of 2-3 and choose one of the options listed in Part 3 of the Student Worksheet to investigate. Before they get started, go through the options together.

Choose one of the options to go through as a class to ensure students understand the task.

For example - ask students to think about the option of 'Avoiding Seasons'. Ask students to think about why this option would be useful; e.g. it will stop large-scale fishing from happening at times of the year when there are more threatened species around. Students can Google 'by-catch avoiding seasons' and look at some of the options that come up.

This is a good time to remind students about digital literacy and ensuring their Google searches yield accurate sources of information. Remind students of the Search Strategies for Googling.

Step 3

As students work, support them by providing prompts and asking questions, for example:

What are some useful search terms to use?
How can each group member uniquely help the group? (for example, can they assign roles such as researcher, writer, fact checker?)
Instead of using actual data to create the line graph in Question 3, think about what you would expect to see based on the research you have done.

Part D: Share and reflect

Step 1

Invite students to share what they have found. You can run this in different ways, for example:

Groups share what they’ve done with two or three other groups first. One person is then nominated to share with the whole class.
Each group has 30 seconds to present what they’ve done to the entire class. To make this run efficiently, each student could stand up and present from their desk.

Step 2

Finally, ask students to reflect on what they have learned by answering the questions below on the Student Worksheet.

How did you decide what values to put on the x- and y-axes?
Why does it matter that you plot each point accurately when you are creating a line graph?
What challenges did you have in creating the line graph for your investigation?
After listening to your classmates' solutions to reducing by-catch, in your opinion what solution would have the biggest impact?

Assessment

What can the students do, say, make or write?

Students can plot linear relationships using a table of values with real data on by-catch. Students can interpret and compare linear relationships. Students can use internet research to find relevant statistics and other information about reducing by-catch.

Take it further

Invite students to apply their learning in a real world context by participating in the Ocean Guardians Creating Change - Social Action - Year 7 & 8.

Blue - Do the Maths on By-catch and Overfishing

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will:

Success criteria:

Students can:

Lesson guides and printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Info

Related Professional Learning

In this lesson