Farm Investigation

Screen 5 – Animal Finder App

On Screen 5, students are given George’s measurements and told they are correct. George then introduces his “Animal Finder App,” which uses a binary decision tree that combines information on the size of each footprint with information on other characteristics of the footprint (number of parts, presence of toes/heel, presence of skin between the toes) to identify the animal that made the footprint. The App can be considered a data-gathering and summarizing tool that students use to combine measurements and observations to reach a conclusion.

Clicking “Start” takes the students to Screen 6 where they use the App to identify the owners of each of the four footprints.