A bird sanctuary sometimes takes over the care of eggs or chicks of an endangered duck species if the parents are killed. They are sometimes able to use mothers of farm ducks to cross-foster the chicks, but it doesn't always work. Looking at the following data table, what is the critical period for imprinting in this species? (Note: DAH stands for "days after hatching".)

Question

A.  The critical period extends from 1-3 DAH.

B.  The critical period extends from 3-8 DAH.

C.  The critical period ends sometime between 1-3 DAH. We can not determine from this data when the critical period begins.

D.  The critical period ends sometime between 3-8 DAH. We can not determine from this data when the critical period begins.





Clarify question:

What is the key concept addressed by the question?



What type of thinking is required?



Gather Content:

What do you already know about imprinting? What other information is related to the question? 



Choose Answer:

Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?



Reflection on Process:

Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

D.  The critical period ends sometime between 3-8 DAH. We can not determine from this data when the critical period begins.


Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
The goal of the question is to determine when the critical period for imprinting occurs.

What type of thinking is required?
This is an analyze question. You need to break each of the choices down into its components to see if it matches the data from the table. The data from the table shows the age of the chick and when imprinting was observed. 

Gather Content:
What do you already know about imprinting? What other information is related to the question? 
Imprinting occurs during an early critical period in the life of an animal. If the imprinting does not occur within the critical period then the animals will never be able to imprint on its mother. Paring a chick with a foster mother between 0-3 days after hatching lead to successful imprinting whereas chicks that were paired with foster mothers 8-11 days after hatching did not successfully imprint on the foster mother.

Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
The data show that the critical period ends somewhere between days 3-8, the data does not give any information about when the imprint period begins. It may begin within minutes after hatching or later during the first day.

Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
Did you get the questions right? The key to this question is to interpret the data presented on the table and see what choice best matches the data.