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English (US)

Balancing Act

Tradeoffs in frogs, humans, and other animals

Tradeoffs in frogs, humans, and other animals
Sponsored by:

  • Dr. Michael Reichert's Lab studies the evolution of behaviors, in particular frog communication, and metabolism.

Galactic_PolyMath_First_Sec_Mobile_Info
The Gist:

Students will follow in the soggy footsteps of scientists wading through ponds at night to record frogs as they learn about biological tradeoffs that connect humans to horses to frogs. Along the way, they'll decide which male a female frog should choose as a mate, based on analysis of call performance.

Target Subject:
Science
Grades:
9-12
Estimated Time:
2 x 45 min classes
Target Subject:
Science
Grades:
9-12
Estimated Time:
2 x 45 min classes
Subject breakdown by standard alignments:Subject breakdown by standard alignments
Subject breakdown by standard alignments
Subject breakdown by standard alignments

Driving Question(s):

  • How do trade-offs in how organisms use limited energy and time affect survival and reproduction?
  • How do performance thresholds influence mate selection?
  • What insights can we gain about natural selection in Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla versicolor) from the research findings of Dr. Reichert?

Hook(s):

Cute frogs, seeing sound in spectrograms, and engaging videos create dynamic lessons.

Keywords:
Frogssoundtradeoffsnatural selectionperformance thresholdsspectrograms
For Lesson 1
You Can't Have It All: Biologists Explain Tradeoffs in Life

Every living thing experiences tradeoffs: speed versus endurance; size versus number of offspring; and even fact versus funny in videos.

by Galactic Polymath
For Lesson 2
Tradeoffs in the Love Language of Frogs

A glimpse into the questions, fun fieldwork, & sound analysis that the Reichert Lab does to understand how tradeoffs influence animal communication.

by Galactic Polymath
  • You Can't Have It All: Biologists Explain Tradeoffs in Life
  • Tradeoffs in the Love Language of Frogs

2 x 45 min

By exploring many examples of tradeoffs through videos, graphs, and discussion, students will recognize how each organisms' investment of energy and time to different traits and activities is an evolutionary "balancing act."

Available Grades Bands

Available Teaching Environments

Browse & Download All G9-12 MaterialsBrowse & Download All G9-12 Materials
Learning Objectives

Students will be able to...

  1. Analyze and discuss trade-offs in everyday scenarios by evaluating the benefits and costs of each.

  2. Graphically represent different trade-off decision outcomes.

  3. Examine and explain a biological trade-off by summarizing the concept in their own words and relating it to scientific research.

Materials for Grades 9-12

  1. Presentation (Lesson 1)

    Need: WiFi, Computer, Projector, Sound

    lesson_tile

  2. Student Worksheet (Lesson 1)

    Print 1 Per Student

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  3. For teachers guides, sign in with a free account!

    Teacher Worksheet (Lesson 1)

    Print 1

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  4. Student Handout/ Table (Lesson 1)

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Steps & Flow

10 min: Do content creators manage tradeoffs?

1.

Engaging students in tradeoffs in YouTube Content

1.

Engaging students in tradeoffs in YouTube Content

Students step into the mindset of content creators.

The students will watch the first part of ▶ You Can't Have It All: Biologists Explain Tradeoffs in Life explaining the tradeoff between how educational and how entertaining science videos are. They will then rank 4 short clips on a graph summarizing this tradeoff.

  • organism: a living thing
  • tradeoff: a balance between two important but incompatible features; a compromise

There are no correct answers. Students' perceptions are the best metric. If they are struggling to make decisions, help them look for humor that indicates entertaining videos and scientific facts that indicate more educational videos.

5 min: Video featuring research team

2.

Exploring biological tradeoffs

2.

Exploring biological tradeoffs

Students watch a section of the video ▶ You Can't Have It All: Biologists Explain Tradeoffs in Life and answer two questions on the worksheet.

  • calling behavior: the act of producing sound and changing the characteristics of those sounds

20 min: Examining Biological Tradeoffs

3.

Explain: Finding the mystery animals on the graph

3.

Explain: Finding the mystery animals on the graph

Students use a table to find label lines on a graph of offspring mass and number of offspring per year.

Help students find the points indicated by lines labeled 1 and 2 on the graph and locate those points in the table to identify the organisms.

  • reproduction: organisms make more of themselves
  • offspring: product of organisms' reproduction, ex. human offspring are children
  • proportion: fraction of a whole (sometimes expressed interchangeably as a percent)
  • adaptation: change in a species over time as a result of natural selection

Help students make the connection between a high number of offspring and low mass. There is also a connection between low number of offspring and high mass. For example, fish eggs are small, but there are many of them. In contrast, chimpanzees have few young but they are relatively large compared to a fish egg.

4.

Elaborate: Mass vs. Survival

4.

Elaborate: Mass vs. Survival

Students analyze the data in Figure 2 to make a connection between size of offspring and their survival rate.

In Fig. 2 help students find the trend of larger offspring having higher survival rates. This trend emerges because of a tradeoff. Animals cannot have lots of offspring that all survive. Species have evolved to either produce lots of offspring, with few survivors or few offspring with lots of survivors.

  • survival: ability of an organism to live long enough to reproduce
  • fecundity: The ability of an organism to produce many offspring (babies). Higher fecundity means an organism has more chances to pass on its genes to the next generation.

10 min: Video featuring the research team

5.

Review: Wrapping up tradeoffs

5.

Review: Wrapping up tradeoffs

Students summarize what they have learned about tradeoffs and generate additional examples.

Students watch the last section of ▶ You Can't Have It All: Biologists Explain Tradeoffs in Life and answer questions in Part 4.

Going Further

Ideas and resources for deepening learning on this topic.

  1. Tradeoffs in Evolution

    Scroll down to the middle of the page to find a good discussion of evolutionary tradeoffs.

  2. Billion Beats Hypothesis

    Is there a mathematical formula for predicting an animal's lifespan based on size?

  3. Read about tradeoffs in the scientific journal *Current Biology*

    A more technical discussion of the concept of tradeoffs in biology

argument
Learning Objectives

Students will be able to...

  1. Explain how performance thresholds apply in biological contexts.

  2. Interpret spectrograms to identify call rate and duration.

  3. Analyze how trade-offs in frog vocal performance affect overall fitness and survival.

Materials for Grades 9-12

  1. Presentation (Lesson 2)

    Need: WiFi, Computer, Projector, Sound

    lesson_tile

  2. Student Handout (Lesson 2)

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  3. For teachers guides, sign in with a free account!

    Teacher Handout (Lesson 2)

    Print 1

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  4. For teachers guides, sign in with a free account!

    Teacher Worksheet (Lesson 2)

    Print 1

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  5. Student Worksheet (Lesson 2)

    Print 1 Per Student

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Steps & Flow

10 min: Part 1: Performance Thresholds

1.

Engage: Tradeoffs in Performance Thresholds

1.

Engage: Tradeoffs in Performance Thresholds

Students watch the video embedded in the presentation ▶ Tradeoffs in the Love Language of Frogs and answer questions 1-4 on the student worksheet.

Student review the concept of tradeoffs from the last lesson and apply tradeoffs to performance thresholds.

  • performance threshold: maximum level of performance based on the structure and physiology of the organism

Coach students struggling to connect performance thresholds to tradeoffs to think about how fast humans can run versus how far humans can run. Marathon runners are not good sprinters, and vice versa.

15 min: Part 2: Spectrograms

2.

Explore & Explain: Analyzing Frog Call Data: Duration

2.

Explore & Explain: Analyzing Frog Call Data: Duration

Students review spectrogram figures and calculate duration of frog calls.

Students learn about spectrograms on a video INSERT HEARD that BIRD 0:55 - 1:30 here . Then they work with spectrograms, subtracting the start time from the end time in the data table on the worksheet to calculate duration. Students put their answers in the data table and find the average.

  • call duration: length of a frog call, subtract the beginnning time from end time

Hopefully, all your students will know how to calculate and average. Some might need reminding.

3.

Explore: Analyzing Frog Call Data: Rate

3.

Explore: Analyzing Frog Call Data: Rate

Students use data table to calculate calling rate of select frogs.

Calling rate directions are listed beneath the table for students.

  • call rate: number of calls per unit of time

Call rate is calculated in this instance by counting the number of calls for each frog in the table and dividing by 30 sec.

10 min: Part 3: Plotting Data to Find the Mystery Frog

4.

Elaborate: Who is who on the graph?

4.

Elaborate: Who is who on the graph?

Students watch more of the video ▶ Tradeoffs in the Love Language of Frogs and plot their data for each frog "personality" on the graph in Figure 4.

After obtaining more info from the video ▶ Tradeoffs in the Love Language of Frogs, students label lines 1-4 on the graph in Figure 4, then write claim, evidence, and reasoning statements on which frog they think will be preferred by females. Claim, evidence, reasoning (CER): Students make a claim about which frog on Fig 4 would be most successful based on evidence. They explain their reasoning.

  • claim: a statement about how you interpret the data
  • evidence: data that supports your claim
  • reasoning: how the data supports your claim

Help students recognize that number 4 on the graph is closest to the performance threshold represented by the dotted line. Based on the information in the video, Frog 4 (Wert) would probably receive the most attention from females.

10 min: Optional Part 4: Reflect and Connect

5.

Evaluate: Exit Ticket

5.

Evaluate: Exit Ticket

Students work alone or in groups to complete a 3,2,1 exit ticket at the end of the worksheet.

Optional discussion questions and exit ticket.

If students don't have practice doing CER activities, you can do it as a class. There is also a 3-2-1 style exit ticket in the slides as the very end.

Going Further

Ideas and resources for deepening learning on this topic.

  1. Intro to Spectrograms Video "Seeing Voices

    Video on an exploration of how spectrograms are structured and how music looks on a spectrogram

  2. Intro to Spectrograms Video "Seeing Voices

    how scientists and computer engineers used spectrograms in analyzing animal communications and Large Language Models (LLM)

  3. Analyzing Prarie Dog Calls

    Con Slobodchikoff, Ph.D., and his students at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, explain the sophistication of Gunnison's prairie dogs' alarm calls that can contain information as specific as the color of someone's shirt.

  4. A Deeper Dive into Bioacoustics

    How bioacoustics research is used in marine settings

  5. Recording Soundscapes to Monitor Ecosystem Health

    Canadian Geographic Article on Soundscapes and how they have changed in the past 60 years.

  6. How resonance changes sounds

    3 min video on resonance with examples from music and the human voice from the National Music Center on YouTube

  7. Video showing of human performance testing

    Section of "Hunting the Elements" from PBS, 44 sec clip from 1:10:16 - 1:11:00, shows VO2 max testing similar to metabolic testing for frogs

Materials for Grades 9-12

  1. BalancingActEvalAssessment

    Digital form for pre/post test assessment. See printable teacher version for evaluation guidance.

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  2. For teachers guides, sign in with a free account!

    BalancingActAssessmentPrint (TEACHER KEY)

    Printable assessment

    lesson_tile

  3. BalancingActAssessmentPrint (STUDENT)

    Printable assessment

    lesson_tile

Connection to Research

Dr. Michael Reichert’s lab at Oklahoma State University sponsored this unit. Lesson 1 is not directly related to his work with frogs, but aims to introduce students to many fun examples of tradeoffs in daily life and across the animal kingdom. In Lesson 1, students work with real research data from DM Anderson and GF Gilroy (2021) on tradeoffs between mass of offspring and number of offspring, as well as tradeoffs between the number of offspring produced and survival rate. In Lesson 2, students dive into another real data set from Michael Reichert & Carl Gerhardt (2012). Students analyze frog calls as researchers do, by observing spectrograms (pictures of sound) and calculating call rate and frequency. They use their calculations to predict which male frog should be most desirable to females, based on experimental results in the Reichert & Gerhard 2012 paper.

Research Background

Dr. Michael Reichert studies how frogs communicate, how metabolism affects their ability to call vigorously, and why some frogs don’t attract mates. Reichert and his graduate students are trying to understand the evolution of behaviors. Specifically, they are interested in how animals use communication strategies to deal with complex environments. For example, how does one male frog stand out from a chorus of other males all trying to attract females? And how do females assess which males are high quality? Lessons 1 and 2 introduce these broader questions and future lessons will dive more into Dr. Reichert’s ongoing research to see whether individual differences in metabolism explain differences in male calling performance.

Target Standard(s)

Skills and concepts directly taught or reinforced by this lesson

Dimension: Performance Expectation

How does the lesson address this standard?

The culminating discussion in Lesson 2, where students connect their findings on trade-offs to broader biological concepts, ties into explaining how natural selection drives adaptation in populations, particularly how performance thresholds can determine fitness and reproductive success in a given environment.

How does the lesson address this standard?

Lesson 2’s focus on how frog vocal performance affects fitness and survival relates to understanding how trade-offs in traits can influence evolutionary outcomes, such as reproductive success and survival, thereby aligning with the standard on evolutionary processes.

Connected Standard(s)

Skills and concepts reviewed or hinted at in this lesson (for building upon)

Dimension: Algebra, Geometry, Trig, Calculus & Higher Level Thinking

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lessons 1 and 2, students create graphs to show trade-offs in everyday life (Lesson 1) and in nature (Lesson 2) using symbols for different data points, helping them practice graphing and understanding functions.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students examine how changes in call rate and duration impact frog fitness, calculating and interpreting these changes over time, which helps them understand the concept of rate of change.

Dimension: Measurement, Data, Probability & Statistics

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lessons 1 and 2, students analyze and interpret graphs showing trade-offs in everyday life (Lesson 1) and in nature (Lesson 2) using symbols for data points. They explore the relationship between two variables and its impact, which helps them practice graphing and understanding functions.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students create scatter plots to show trade-offs and analyze how variables relate in different scenarios. This supports the standard's focus on using scatter plots to represent and analyze data.

Dimension: Language, Speaking & Listening

How does the lesson address this standard?

Throughout the unit, students will work with partners and the class to understand information through discussions and writing.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students combine information from spectrograms and other sources (including a research article) to draw conclusions about frog vocal performance, practicing how to use different types of information to solve problems.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students will present their findings on trade-offs and performance thresholds, making sure their reasoning is clear and logical. This helps them practice effective communication and presentation skills.

Dimension: Reading

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students analyze various sources (graphs, spectrograms, audio recordings, and a science research article) to build a clear claim supported by evidence and reasoning.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students will read a section from a science research article that includes advanced academic vocabulary.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students will summarize the complex ideas of trade-offs and performance thresholds in their own words, which helps them practice paraphrasing difficult information.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students collect and evaluate information from spectrograms and scientific articles to draw conclusions about frog vocal performance, practicing how to combine information from different sources.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students combine and assess information from spectrograms and other sources (including a research article) to draw conclusions about frog calls, practicing how to use information from different formats to answer scientific questions.

Dimension: Writing

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students write about how trade-offs in frog vocal performance affect overall fitness, using specific content to support their arguments. This helps them practice writing in the context of biology.

Dimension: Science & Engineering Practices

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students analyze trade-offs in everyday situations and are encouraged to ask questions about how different choices lead to different outcomes. This helps them understand how independent and dependent variables interact in decision-making.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students create graphs to show trade-offs using data from different scenarios. This helps them analyze the outcomes of their decisions and draw valid conclusions about the trade-offs they encounter, supporting the standard's focus on data analysis.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students analyze and explain a biological trade-off, making and defending a claim based on evidence. This activity helps them develop critical thinking and argumentation skills, grounded in scientific understanding.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students learn about trade-offs and performance thresholds in biology. They use and interpret models to understand these concepts, which helps them predict biological outcomes, aligning with the standard.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students interpret spectrograms, using math to understand and explain frog calls. This ties directly to the standard's focus on using quantitative tools to support scientific claims.

Dimension: Disciplinary Core ideas

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students learn about trade-offs and performance thresholds in biology, which helps them understand how organisms adapt their traits and behaviors to survive in changing environments.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2’s final activity, students present their findings on trade-offs and performance thresholds, helping them understand how these factors drive evolution. The lesson highlights how these biological trade-offs impact survival, reproduction, and competition, influencing evolutionary outcomes.

Dimension: Cross-Cutting Concepts

How does the lesson address this standard?

Students analyze how the length and duration of frog calls create a pattern that results in a performance threshold.

Dimension: Evaluating Sources, Communicating Conclusions & Taking Action

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students create and present explanations of their findings on trade-offs and performance thresholds, making sure their reasoning is solid and backed by data. This supports the standard's focus on building detailed and well-reasoned explanations.

Dimension: Social Awareness & Relationships

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students discuss trade-offs in everyday situations, considering how their choices affect themselves and others. This aligns with Standard 5A by encouraging responsible and ethical decision-making.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students learn about trade-offs in biology, which helps them appreciate different survival strategies and adaptations. This supports Standard 4B by encouraging respect and understanding for diverse approaches.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 2, students practice communication and social skills by discussing their spectrogram interpretations and sharing their findings with classmates. This supports Standard 4A by encouraging positive interactions and teamwork.

Dimension: Responsibility

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students discuss trade-offs in everyday situations, thinking about how their choices affect themselves and others. This supports Standard 5A by promoting responsible and ethical decision-making.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students use problem-solving skills to evaluate trade-offs in academic and social situations, supporting Standard 5C by helping them make responsible and thoughtful decisions in daily life.

How does the lesson address this standard?

In Lesson 1, students graphically represent trade-offs, using a systematic approach to decision-making. This supports Standard 5B by helping them develop structured methods for evaluating options and making informed decisions based on data.

Matt Wilkins | Led the project, spearheaded all curricular materials, and directed videos
Beth Robelia | Designed and co-developed L1-2 materials; produced videos
Stephanie Castillo | Produced, edited, narrated, and scored supporting videos
Katie Capp | Helped develop initial draft materials
Michael Reichert | Defined outreach goals; provided feedback throughout development; provided scientific validation of lesson content

Funder

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation CAREER grant IOS-2339824

Illustrator

Created original artwork for unit banner, lesson tiles, and video assets

Featured Scientist

Starred in videos for Lesson 1-2

Major Release 1

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Jan 27, 2025

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0.1.0 Lesson initialized

June 17, 2024