By: Jaida Andrews
Students in Biology 1 participated in the Great Elephant Census last week and learned
about elephant populations through this lab.
“Students are always excited to see that they are actually getting to do something in
class,” said CHS biology teacher and science department chair Jennifer Morence, “They prefer
hands-on work over everything else.”
During the lab, elephant populations have limiting factors, they graphed population
changes over time while working on their lab.
Morence said they modeled the process to transect sampling to learn how scientists keep
track of animals that are difficult to count while collecting data.
All equipment used in the lab was handmade. Lids from paper boxes were used to create
a landscape.
Business teacher Mike Jansen printed off the transect lines, and then glued them into the
box lids. Lentils and peas were used to model the tuskless and tusked elephants.
When students count the elephants, they can also determine what percentage of the
population is tuskless.
This is directly related to the area where the elephants are surveying.
Through this lab, students learned about how conservation or the lack of it is managed in
each of those areas.
After the lab, they are able to explain why they calculated their percentage and predict
how it will impact future generations.