Graph Type C
Level 2
Page 1
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Date______________________
Teacher Copy
One Fish, Two fish, Shy Fish, Bold Fish
Data provided by and written by GK-12 Fellow Melissa Kjelvik
Background Information:
Animals can act very differently. The way they act can decide which habitats they use. There are
two kinds of habitats that young bluegill use to find food: open water and cover. The open water habitat
has more food. But, the open water habitat has very few places for bluegill to hide, so it’s not as safe! The
cover habitat is in shallower areas where lots of plants grow for bluegill to hide in. Scientists can look at
what the fish were eating to see what habitats they were looking for food in. If a fish has a lot of
zooplankton in their stomachs, they were probably using open-water habitat to look for food!
Scientists at the Kellogg Biological Station wanted to know whether bluegill with different
personalities were using different habitats. They brought young bluegill into an aquarium lab and
observed them to see if each one was bold or shy. Bold fish were the ones that weren’t as scared of
predators as the shy fish. The scientists marked the fish so they could tell the difference between the
bold and shy ones and put 100 bold and 100 shy young bluegill into a pond. After the experiment, they
looked at whether the fish had eaten zooplankton (found in open water habitats) or insect larvae (found in
cover).
Cover
Open water
Figure 1 Pond Environment.
Open water is riskier for young bluegill to use
because predators (bigger fish) can see them
Figure 2 Set-up of lab trials to watch bluegill.
If a bluegill eats the food near the predator it has
a bold personality.
DATA Look at the data below. See if you identify some potential patterns. Then, read on.
The table shows:
(1) the percentage of food in the fish stomachs that was zooplankton or insect larvae (Remember
that zooplankton are found in open water and insect larvae are found in shallow water!) and
(2) the growth of bold and shy fish studied measured two ways: as average fish length in
millimeters and as average fish weight in grams.
(1) Food In Fish Stomachs
(2) Fish Growth
Open Water (zooplankton)
Shallow Water (insect larvae)
Length (mm)
Weight (g)
Bold
32%
68%
74
6.6
Shy
9%
91%
70
5.5
Developed by NSF-funded Kellogg Biological Station GK-12 Fellows at Michigan State University
Updated 2/9/2016 1:46:43 AM by LEK-C
Graph Type C
Level 2
Name_____________________
Date______________________
Teacher Copy
Page 2
Evidence: You will draw graphs using the data provided and use these graphs to answer the
scientific questions by making a claim. The data is the evidence that you will base your claim
on, just like a lawyer would in a court case
(1) Use the data collected by MSU scientists to draw a bar graph of the relationship between
behavior (bold and shy) and habitat use (% open water and shallow water) (Draw your graph
below).
Students can make a bar graph with the percentage of diet found in open vs
shallow water:
Percent Habitat Use of Bold and Shy Fish
Habitat Use (%)
100%
80%
60%
Open Water
40%
Cover
20%
0%
Bold
Shy
Fish Behavior
(2) Next, draw two bar graphs that show the growth of fish related to their behavior: one
showing the relationship between behavior (bold or shy) and average length and another
showing the relationship between behavior and average weight (Draw your graphs below).
Average Weight of Bold and Shy Fish
Average Length of Bold and Shy Fish
Title:
Bold
Shy
Fish Behavior
Title:
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Bold
Fish Behavior
Average Weight (g)
Average Fish Length (mm)
76
74
72
70
68
66
64
62
60
Average Weight (g)
Average Length (mm)
?
Scientific Questions:
(1) Does the habitat use by bold and shy fish differ?
(2) If there is a difference, how do differences habitat use affect fish growth?
(Do you think one habitat has better food than the other?)
Shy
Bold
Shy
Fish Behavior
Bold
Shy
Fish Behavior
Evidence summary: Bold fish had more food in their stomachs from the open
water habitat than shy fish. Bold fish were both longer and weighed more then
shy fish.
Developed by NSF-funded Kellogg Biological Station GK-12 Fellows at Michigan State University
Updated 2/9/2016 1:46:43 AM by LEK-C
Graph Type C
Level 2
Page 3
Name_____________________
Date______________________
Teacher Copy
Claim: Write a claim that answers the scientific questions.
Bold and shy fish use different habitats to find food and bold
fish grow faster, maybe because the open water habitat has
higher quality food.
Reasoning: How does the evidence support your claim? (Be specific!)
Shy fish mostly used shallow water habitat to find food. Bold
fish also mostly used shallow water for their habitat, but they
used more open water habitat than the shy fish. (Bold fish used
open water habitat 32% of the time, but shy fish only used open
water habitat 9% of the time) Because bold fish used open water
habitat much more than the shy fish, they are using different
habitats to find food.
Bold fish were also bigger in length (by 4 mm) and weight (by
1.1 g) than shy fish, so students can hypothesize that food from
open water habitats are higher quality, allowing the bold fish
to grow more than the shy fish.
Developed by NSF-funded Kellogg Biological Station GK-12 Fellows at Michigan State University
Updated 2/9/2016 1:46:43 AM by LEK-C