One class period
Resource management is essential to
ensure a sustainable supply of several important shared resources.
While viewing of the
Enviro-Tacklebox™ video segment students will be
introduced to carrying capacity and sustainability-both important
concepts in understanding the limited nature of our resources.
This activity will model the real world fishing industry and
provide students with an experience to refer to while developing
decision making strategies.
Life science, Environmental science, Mathematics 
Students will be able to:
• Explain the concepts of carrying capacity and sustainability
• Discuss the importance of understanding systems in planning
resource management strategies
• Develop an understanding of the notion that quantities
change
National Science Education Standards 
http://bob.nap.edu/html/nses/html
Unifying Concepts and Processes
• Systems, order, and organization
• Evidence, model, and explanation
• Evolution and equilibrium
Science as Inquiry
• Understandings about scientific inquiry
Life Science
• (5-8) Populations and ecosystems
• (9-12) Interdependence of organisms
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
• (5-8) Populations, resources, and environments
• (5-8 and 9-12) Natural Resources
Excellence in EE Guidelines for Learning
(K-12):
Strand 1: Questioning and Analysis Skills
Guidelines: F. Working with models and simulations
G. Developing proposed explanations
Strand 2: Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems
2.2: The Living Environment
Guideline: C. Systems and connections
2.4: Environment and Society
Guideline: C. Resources
Strand 3: Skills for Understanding and Addressing Environmental
Issues
3.1: Skills for Analyzing and Investigating Environmental Issues
Guidelines: A. Identifying and investigating issues
B. Sorting out the consequences of issues
C. Identifying and evaluating alternative solutions and courses
of Action.
3.2: Decision-Making and Citizenship Skills
Guideline: D. Resulting the results of actions
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
http://Standards.nctm.org/document
Algebra: Analyze change in various contexts
Louisiana Science Framework: State Standards
for Curriculum Development http://www.doe.state.la.us/doe/assessment/standards/SCIENCE.pdf
SI-M-A3: Using mathematics and appropriate tools and
techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data
SI-M-A4: Developing descriptions, explanation, and graphs
using data
SI-M-B4: Using data and logical arguments to propose,
modify, or elaborate on principles and models
SE-M-A1: Demonstrating knowledge that an ecosystem includes
living and nonliving factors and that humans are an integral
part of ecosystems
SE-M-A2: Demonstrating an understanding of how carrying
capacity and limiting factors affect plant and animal populations
SE-M-A4:
Understanding that human actions can create risks and consequences
in the environment
Louisiana Mathematics Frameworks
http://www.lcet.doe.state.la.us/doe/assessment/standards/MATH.pdf
N-5 Appplying an understanding of rational numbers and
arithmetic operations to real-life situations
A-4 Analyzing tables and graphs to identify relationships
exhibited by the data and making generalizations based upon
these relationships
The Enviro-Tacklebox™ Module 3
Commons Sense
Fisheries management:
http://www.ifmt.nf.ca/mi-net/fishmngt/index.htm
Minet Marine Institute provides a site that links to number
of locations that address a variety of fishery resource topics.
Per Class:
• 200 Fish (candies, gold fish crackers, plastic chips)
• 1 Ocean Container (opaque)
• 1 Fishing boat per cooperative group (fishing crew)
• 1 Overhead transparency or sheet of flip chart paper
Per Fishing Crew:
• Numbered Boat
• Slips of paper
1. The teacher will serve as the Ocean Manager and before
beginning the activity should place 25-50 “fish” into
an opaque “Ocean” container.
2. Prepare a chart on the overhead sheet to show each
round and the number of fish requested by each cooperative group.
3. CUE video to the segment on Cape Cod fishing, this
begins with the map zoom in to Cape Cod, MA and the moderators
words “This is Cape Cod Mass”
1. The teacher should clear the room of any extra student
desks before the start of class on the day of this activity.
2. In opening discussion the teacher should ask the students
to look around the classroom and think about the use of the
room. Tell the class that there is a discussion going on about
brining students in from another school as the buildings there
undergo some major renovations. Ask the students if they feel
the room and their class space could take in an additional 5
students? 10 students? 15 students? 20 students? Indicate that
each class in the school would be taking in additional students
each of whom would have to eat in the cafeteria, take gym, use
the library and all other facilities.
3. As the students begin to express the number they feel
is the maximum that could be added to “their” space
have them explain why. Have them express the problems they see
or the concerns they have for the increasing number of students
at their school. The school may already be overcrowded with
a population that exceeds the number of students the school
was built to accommodate. Students may indicate this be referring
to T-buildings on campus, lack of lockers for all students or
crowded halls at class change. Students may comment of limited
seating in the cafeteria or perhaps time restrictions being
established on computer use in the library.
4. Close the discussion by asking for student explanations
of carrying capacity (the number of organisms that can be supported
by the resources in an area) and sustainability (ensuring resource
availability for the future) as they relate to different natural
systems such as the number of deer in a forest. If the students
have been introduced to suburban sprawl the loss of habitat
and its effect on the deer population could be briefly addressed.
1. VIDEO Viewing
A.Before showing the video segment ask the students what the
expression
“Stocks are down “ means to them. With a show of hands
have the
students indicate who has ever been fishing. Following the student
response ask some of them where and how they have fished. Instruct
the
students to listen carefully to the different people while they
discuss the
current status of cod fishing and to be ready to discuss how
fishing off the
coast of MA has changed for the people who work in that area.
B. PLAY the Enviro-Tacklebox™ Cape Cod fishing
segment Begin with the Cape Cod Map and the Read “This
is Cape Cod, MA” and stop the video with the sunset image
and the words “Much more healthy resource.”
C. After viewing ask your students the following?
1. What do the scientists and cod fishermen mean by stocks
are down?
2. How have the fishing techniques changed?
3. What were the impacts of the new techniques and equipment
on the fish stocks?
4. After hearing the different presentations during the
video ask the students, what they think lies ahead for the ships
in the fishing fleet?
2. Divide the class into cooperative
groups and distribute one fishing boat and set of catch slips
to each boat crew.
A. The ocean manager begins the activity with some general information.
1. The ocean can sustain 50 fish.
2. During the fishing rounds of the activity each boat
crew will determine a number of fish they wish to catch and
submit that number on one of the small slips of paper to the
ocean manager. Each slip should have the round of the activity,
the boat number and the number of fish the crew is requesting.
3. When all catch slips from a round have been submitted
the ocean manager will provide the fish catch to each boat.
If a catch slip request is greater than the number of fish in
the ocean no fish will be caught.
4. Boats will return to their homeport and the next round
will begin.
5. The ocean manager will restock the ocean according
to the chart on display. Restock will be determined by the number
of fish remaining in the ocean at the end of each round.
a. If the ocean has less than 25 fish remaining the number
of fish added will equal the number in place.
b. If the ocean has greater than 25 fish the teacher
will add the number needed to bring the ocean back to 50 fish.
If 22 fish remain in the ocean after round 1 then 22 will be
added so that round two begins with 44 not 50 fish. If however
32 fish remain then 18 will be added and round 2 will begin
with a full 50 fish.
B. Fishing crews should have a few minutes to discuss their
ideas and plan a strategy.
C. Proceed through a series of rounds as time allows. As the
slips come in record the number of fish requested by each boat.
Group Discussion – Project or post the chart showing the
class activity during the rounds of the activity.
1. What strategy did your group decide to adopt at the
start of the activity?
2. What happened to the ocean fish population during
the activity?
3. Did your crew decide to change their strategy?
4. Did your crew ever return from a fishing excursion
without any fish? How did the group feel?
5. What are other factors that could cause a change in
a successful fisheries management strategy approved by the commercial
fleet? (Some suggested factors are extreme weather conditions,
hypoxia, disease within the fish population, and/or the introduction
of a non-native predator.)
Economics/Mathematics: A value could be placed on each
fish adding economic competition to the team strategy plan.
As part of the discussion on the crew strategies each captain
should record on a class market board the value of their catch
with each completed round of fishing. Determine the maximum
possible profit if a state of sustainable fishing was achieved
by the fleet.
Social Studies: Research the recorded values of the fish
harvest landed at different Louisiana ports for each of the
past five (5) years.
• Interview various people involved in the commercial fishing
industry-a boat owner, a boat captain, an agent from the state
Fish and Wildlife Agency, a fisheries researcher.
• Review the state regulations on limits set for recreational
fishing and research how they were set.
• Sweeney, L.B. & Meadows, D. (1996). The systems
thinking playbook. Laboratory for Interactive Learning,
University of New Hampshire: Durham, NH.
• Publications Manager, Institute for Policy and Social
Science, University of New Hampshire, Fish Banks, LTD.
• J. L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium, Global
Jigsaw Volume 1 Number 1 Avoiding the Tragedy off the
Commons
• Zero Population Growth Summer 2001 Teachers’ PET
Term Paper, “Got Fish?”
