Scientists study polar bear population in order to see their health and to see if their effort in helping them is successful.  The following article provides the estimates of the population of polar bears in the North Beauport.

http://polarbearscience.com/2013/07/02/did-polar-bear-numbers-in-e-beaufort-fluctuate-each-decade-due-to-thick-ice-years/

Year        Population estimate

1972        409

1975         1341

1985         938

1987         1122

1989         456

2005         1345

2006         767

Students can plot the graph and code it using Hopscotch.

From the Ontario grade 4 Science curriculum:

analyse the effects of human activities on habitats and communities;

From the Ontario grade 4 Math curriculum:

• develop, select, and apply problem-solving strategies as they pose and solve problems and
conduct investigations, to help deepen their mathematical understanding;
• develop and apply reasoning skills (e.g., classification, recognition of relationships, use
of counter-examples) to make and investigate conjectures and construct and defend
arguments;
• demonstrate that they are reflecting on and monitoring their thinking to help clarify their
understanding as they complete an investigation or solve a problem (e.g., by comparing
and adjusting strategies used, by explaining why they think their results are reasonable, by
recording their thinking in a math journal);
• select and use a variety of concrete, visual, and electronic learning tools and appropriate
computational strategies to investigate mathematical ideas and to solve problems;
• make connections among mathematical concepts and procedures, and relate mathematical
ideas to situations or phenomena drawn from other contexts (e.g., other curriculum areas,
daily life, sports);
• create a variety of representations of mathematical ideas (e.g., by using physical models,
pictures, numbers, variables, diagrams, graphs, onscreen dynamic representations), make
connections among them, and apply them to solve problems;
• communicate mathematical thinking orally, visually, and in writing, using everyday language,
a basic mathematical vocabulary, and a variety of representations, and observing
basic mathematical conventions.

• solve problems involving the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of single- and
multi-digit whole numbers, and involving the addition and subtraction of decimal numbers
to tenths and money amounts, using a variety of strategies;
• demonstrate an understanding of proportional reasoning by investigating whole-number
unit rates.