Radio Telemetry lesson

[Dawn Adams]

Hello -
I have been lucky enough to be awarded a trip to study radio telemetry of wolves and the International Wolf Center. I would love to incorporate this experience into my classroom (I teach 8th grade - Algebra 1). Wonder if anyone has any interesting or novel ideas to use this experience?
Thanks in advance - Dawn Adams

[Sherry Annee]

Congratulations and have a great time at the International Wolf Center learning and dreaming! I don't have any specific ideas but will let you know if I think of any - please tell us about your experience.

[Mathew Philipose]

Hello Dawn, Congrats on your wonderful and exciting opportunity. I know that there is a lot of math involved in radio waves and doppler effects (which is what I think is used to measure distances of wolf dispersion?). The math is pretty interesting and simple. There is a connection between frequency of radiowaves, the wavelength of the same wave and speed. Just google it and you will see the formula. Hope this helps with your query.
8th grade algebra can easily use the formula you can graph results of telemetry. Nothing like connecting bio to math!
Let me know if you need more details.

[Dawn Adams]

Matthew -
Thanks for the ideas. I was thinking about plotting the points and using latitude and longitude, approximating areas that the wolves were occupying, and computing average distance traveled. I forgot all about the radio waves and the relationship between frequency, wavelength, and speed. Thanks for the ideas. I leave on Friday and will let you know how it goes.