In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will assist Sea World with their manatee rescue. Manatees live in many places in the state of Florida. Sea World rescues injured manatees and then releases them back into the wild. Sea World needs help determining safe places to release them. The factors students need to consider will be distance from Sea World, depth of water, and the population of humans living on and using the water source.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx