Suggested Procedures

1. Ask students: What do fish do when we can't see them? What are they doing when they are swimming in the ocean or deep in a lake? Where do they sleep? Where do they eat? Discuss the student responses for a few minutes. How do we know? Students may give many different answers. Be sure to acknowledge all of them. Then, inform the students that they will now have the opportunity to become real scientists and follow a fish as it moves around a lake right here in Arizona.
2. Divide the class into groups of about 3 or 4 students. Although each student is expected to do his or her own work, they can help each other.
3. Instruct the students to access the Internet and open up the WebQuest titled "The Mysterious Case of the Bass and the Lake." It is probably easier to bookmark this page on every computer rather than having the students type in the address.
4. If students have never done a WebQuest before, it may be necessary to demonstrate how they work. Explain that the buttons on the left side of the page will provide them with directions. They should start at the top of the page. When they have finished everything, they can click on the next button to receive more information.
5. If your class is competent with computers you may hand out the Reading a Map and Can You Swim with the Fishes? worksheets and have them work in their groups to complete the first two tasks. However, it may be necessary to work through each step as a class. In this case, click on each step, read the directions as a class, and then have the students work in their groups to complete the worksheets.
6. When students have completed both worksheets, they should be ready to move on to the fish tracking. If you want the students to track the fish in their groups, then you will need to make a copy of the Map of Lake Pleasant - small version for each group. Then, as the students download data, they can mark the locations on their own maps with colored markers. If you prefer, you can track the fish as a class. In this case, you should download a copy of the Map of Lake Pleasant - large version. This will print out on 11 inch x 17 inch paper. You can then display this map at the front of the classroom and use pushpins and yarn to follow the fish around the lake.
7. Select a place in the room to keep blank copies of My Field Journal. For every fish location, each student will need to complete one of these worksheets. You can help the students develop organization by requiring them to hold on to each of their journal entries until the project is completed. In addition, if you allow the students to keep track of when new data will be posted, they can learn to check the Internet and complete the journal on their own.
8. The first time they fill out the journal it will take some time because they will have multiple data points. However, if you keep up with the new postings, it should only take about 10 to 15 minutes of class each time the students check. You should expect that new data will be posted approximately every two weeks. The anticipated date will be displayed on the data web site. However, circumstances may arise that require the researchers to collect data earlier or later than expected. Remember to be flexible!
9. Continue monitoring the fish as long as you wish. Make sure that you are discussing the data periodically with your class. They should be generating hypotheses about why the fish are moving to certain areas of the lake during certain times of the year. Discuss these hypotheses. Which ones seem reasonable? What would we expect to see next time if the hypothesis is true? Does the data seem to fit the hypothesis?
10. When you are satisfied with the amount of data collected, instruct the students to move on to the fourth task, writing their story. They should use the information they learned about the fish movements to write a story titled "A Year in the Life of a Striped Bass." Remind the students to check the rubric to make sure that they are including everything they need to in their story. They should be paying particular attention to their capitalization and punctuation.
11. When all the students have completed their stories, ask for volunteers to share.
12. Collect the stories, all of the journal entries as well as the Reading a Map and Can You Swim with the Fishes? worksheets from each student.