Prawns for profit
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Australia’s population is increasing, along with our demand for cooked prawns. Approximately 50% of prawns consumed in Australia are imported from countries such as China and Vietnam. Meanwhile the populations of prawns and other marine species in the wild are decreasing. CSIRO scientists have bred ‘the perfect prawn’ and developed a new plant-based prawn feed.
Teacher notes
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The teacher notes contain: an overview of each of the activities; curriculum links and suggested year levels; background information; prompting questions and key mathematical points; practical suggestions for running the activity; a list of resources needed; and further ideas. |
Activity 1: The perfect prawn
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In this activity students consider what makes a perfect prawn in terms of its physical attributes. Using this knowledge they need to make decisions about purchasing prawns for a restaurant they are running in partnership. It is a great group activity that allows students to apply their knowledge of statistics with extensive use of spreadsheets and/or graphics calculators. |
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Farms 1 & 2 spreadsheet |
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The data for the first two prawn farms in Excel format if all students will be working on the same data. |
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Farms 1 & 2 data |
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The data for the first two prawn farms in Word format if all students will be working on the same data. |
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Farm 3 data set |
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The data for the third prawn farm in Word format. |
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Farm 3 data spreadsheet |
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The data for the third prawn farm in Excel format. |
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Mass generator |
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This spreadsheet allows the teacher to generate different sets of prawn data if the students will be working individually or in groups on different sets of data. |
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Mass generator answers |
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Box and whisker plots generated from the given set of data. |
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All files for Activity 1 |
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Activity 2: Farming prawns
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In this activity students use Google Maps and DaftLogic software to develop an idea of the size of the ponds, the stocking rates and the amount of food that is required for the prawns to grow to marketable size. Through sampling techniques and calculations, where it is possible to use a spreadsheet, they gain a better understanding of the actual numbers involved in prawn farming. |
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Activity 3: Populations, people and prawns
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Years 6, 7 and 9 This activity is designed to provide students with a better understanding of population growth and decline using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. They will be making predictions about future population growth as well as investigating species that may have falling populations. The activity provides the opportunity for students to become familiar with formulae and calculations using a spreadsheet. |
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Spreadsheet instructions |
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Step by step instructions for students to develop the spreadsheet to model population growth. |
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Percentage growth |
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Students use this spreadsheet to investigate Australia’s population growth rate using data from 1900. |
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Approximating the value of e |
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This activity allows students to generate an approximate value for the natural number ‘e’. |
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All files for Activity 3 |
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Worksheet |
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Selective breeding worksheet. |
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Worksheet answers |
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The answers to the different selective breeding scenarios. |
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What could go wrong? |
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Instructions for the activity to simulate the breeding of prawns that will be marketable. |
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Coefficient of inbreeding |
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The co-efficient of inbreeding worksheet with details of each case. |
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All files for Activity 4 |
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Activity 5: Pop-up prawn pavilion
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Years 6, 7 and 9 In this activity students will set up a market stall to sell ‘prawns-on-a-stick’ with the aim of saving $5000 to purchase a motor car. They will investigate start up, fixed and variable costs to make all of the necessary financial calculations. To borrow the money to get started they use their calculations to convince their parents/caregivers the stall is a viable business. |
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