Name ___________________________________ Date ____________
Graphing & Analyzing Data
How far might a peregrine falcon migrate?
How, why and to where millions of birds migrate # of Days Distance Traveled
each year has been a scientific puzzle of much Migrating Over 3 Days
interest to naturalists and scientists for 100’s of 0 (September 20) 0
years. Thanks to modern technology we now have a 3 1394
bird’s eye view of how they make these 6 258
mindboggling trips. One of the fastest flying birds, 9 398
the peregrine falcon, can make one of the longest 12 376
migrations – over 13,000 km each way! This fact is 15 389
18 806
confirmed by the work of ornithologists at the
21 551
Falcon Research Group who have fitted individual
24 633
birds with small radio transmitters in order to track 27 1239
the birds’ wanderings. The data table shows how far 30 919
one particular bird migrated over a 60 day period – 33 409
she took off from her summer breeding grounds on 36 585
indymae
Baffin Island, located in the Arctic Ocean of northern 39 809
Canada, and settled for the winter along the Pacific 42 447
coast of Chile in South America. 45 888
48 730
51 555
54 614
57 820
60 (November 19) 422
Use these data to construct a line graph. First identify the following:
1. What should be graphed on the x-axis?
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What should be graphed on the y-axis?
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Determine the scale and then an appropriate interval for the y-axis.
Scale ______________ Interval _______________
4. Prepare and label the axes; plot the data in the form of a line graph.
5. Create a title.
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indymae
Data Analysis
1. For how many days did the falcon travel to reach her wintering grounds? ___________
2. Between which days did the falcon fly the shortest distance? ________
The longest? __________
3. Find the daily average flight speed of the falcon after day 0 through day 9 by filling in the
equation and completing the calculations:
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4. Find the daily average flight speed of the falcon after day 24 through day 33 by filling in the
equation and completing the calculations:
5. Find the daily average flight speed of the falcon after day 51 through day 60 by filling in the
equation and completing the calculations:
6. Above, you calculated the bird’s average speed (km/day) for the first nine days of flying, for
nine days in the middle of the flight, and for the last nine days of migration. Use your
calculations to compare the bird’s average speed and distance flown during these time
periods (in complete sentences).
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
indymae
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. Notice that over some three day periods the falcon flew as far as 1394 km, yet over other
three day periods she flew as few as 258 km. Think of three factors related to the bird’s
needs as she migrates and factors about the surrounding environment that may cause such
vast differences in how far she flies.
1.___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2.___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3.___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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