Estimating Population Size -Materials

For this lab you'll need to make enough populations for your class to have 1 per group/pair. For my class, I have 16 ziploc baggies already made up, and a list I keep with the numbers per bag. Some ideas are: beans, macaroni, beads(cheap route) or even toys. I've picked up some toys from the dollar store that have pieces in them - like toy soldiers or plastic bugs. The kids seem to enjoy the toys more and maybe it gives them a better mental representation of populations.

I give them a strip of masking tape to use to "mark" the individuals in the population - make sure they remove any marks so the next class that uses the baggies starts fresh.