The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources uses a variety of tools and techniques to monitor wildlife, and to produce population estimates to better inform management decisions. Population estimates are used to look at long term trends, as well as setting harvest limits during hunting seasons for potentially vulnerable species. There are two count methods for generating population information: sample counts and total counts. In total counts, every individual of an intended geographic area is counted. For sample counts, a smaller fraction of individuals are counted and the data is used to interpolate population information for the entire geographic area. In this activity, you will create a model for these two different count methods and explore the advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.

Lake Superior plays a vital role in the lives of people who live and work on its shores, and therefore all sorts of data are recorded to help understand and take care of it. Forrest, a high school student, used data from archives to figure out if the ice season was getting shorter each winter in his home town. The length of the ice season is important because it frees the island residents from working around a ferry schedule, allowing them to drive on the ice to get to the mainland.

This resource has been evaluated using the HQIM Rubric found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ppn2frk888P0KwW6IJ8wDJNTa32Pa2T0nzrR6K8Tzos/edit?usp=drive_link