Capture Recapture Lesson and Task (Differentiated)

The lesson will suit any teacher who wishes to stretch and challenge their pupils.

The main lesson involves modelled examples followed by opportunities for whiteboard activities (to provide AFL opportunities). A starter/Do Now activity has not been included because different students will have learnt different topics prior to a lesson on capture-recapture, therefore whoever downloads this lesson will need to incorporate a starter based on their pupils’ prior learning.

The main task gets progressively more challenging, where students have to start off by estimating populations by substituting numbers into the ‘capture-recapture’ formula. Later questions will give them the population and asked them to calculate other missing values (e.g. the number captured and tagged on day 1). The second task asks students to estimate the difference two different given populations using the capture-recapture formula. As a challenge, students will need to apply their skills of setting up and solving equations to estimate populations.

Thank you for considering my lesson and task - any feedback is most welcome!