Lesson Eight: Calorie Counting is for the Birds
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Support Materials
–Introductory Slides
Skill level: Average
Classes appropriate for:
Middle School Math
One of the greatest feats in avian biology is the process by which many migratory songbirds, weighing barely a third of an ounce, can manage to find and consume enough calories to sustain their thousand mile journey from their breeding grounds to wintering grounds and back again. Similar to Migration Math, this lesson explores the energy requirements of migrating birds. However, while the skills required to perform the calculations are similar, the context of this lesson is conceptually more advanced: Students will hypothesize and then calculate which animal—a migrating songbird or human—requires more calories relative to its body weight.