Oh Deer: Resource needs of plants & animals

Question(s)

What essential resources do habitats provide the animals and plants in my watershed?

Overview

In this active and competitive game, students experience how communities of animals and plants change over time in response to the availability of resources in their habitat. Students collect data during the game and then graph and analyze how predators, primary consumers, resource limitations, and competition for resources can impact species.

Standards (MLR)

Learning Objectives

• Students understand that habitat resources and the animals and plants that rely on those resources are constantly changing
• Students understand and graph how a populations changes over time in response to resource availability and the presence of predators/ primary consumers
• Students understand that a habitat with adequate resources is critical to a species’ survival

Materials

• Easel and flip-chart or dry-erase board
• Marker(s)
• Nerf ball
• Colored head bands or arm bands (2 colors, enough of each color to outfit class)
• Cones (something to mark the game boundaries)

Time Needed

30 minutes (can last longer depending on how many rounds you do)

Activity Procedure

INTRODUCTORY BRAIN PREP

1. Ask students to brainstorm a list of things they think an animal species needs to survive in its habitat. From the brainstorm list, ask students to pick the 3 they feel are most important. Write these in a journal entry and explain why they chose each one.

2. Review the definition of habitat and 4-5 essential components of habitat. Habitat is where an animal lives and the basic essential components of habitat for animals are food, water, shelter, and space. Does this “official” list of 4-5 match what students wrote in their journals? Would they change the list? If there is disparity and students can make a great case for changing the list, strongly consider using their list instead.

• Habitat note: If your focus is terrestrial habitats, assume that the species have enough space in which to live. They will need food, water, and shelter. If your focus is aquatic habitats, assume that they need food, space, and shelter.
• Space note: Students typically need some prompting for “space.” It helps to give an example – lots of relatives at your dinner table, too many snakes in your classroom terrarium, too many students in gym class, …

3. Ask students to brainstorm a list of things they think a plant species needs to survive in its habitat. Are their lists the same or different than the lists they generated for animals? Why or why not? The basic essential components of habitat for plants are nutrients, sunlight, water, and space.

GAME PREP

1. Set up your playing field for your initial Animal Round. Make a large rectangle with cones at the 4 corners. There should be at least 20 m separating the ends.

2. Set up your data table on the white board (See example table below).

3. Introduce the habitat and the animal and plant species you’ll focus on. Choose habitats and species that are familiar to or of particular interest to students.

ANIMAL ROUND

1. Have students envision both the habitat and the animal to help focus the students.

2. Ask the students to count off in fours. Starting the game with ¾ habitat and ¼ species typically works really well. Have the 1’s go to one end of the field and stand in a line about shoulder-width apart. This group is the animal species. Have the 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s line up at the opposite end of the playing field, facing the 1’s. This group is habitat.

3. During each round of the activity, each animal may choose to look for any one of its three basic resource needs. When a species is looking for:

• Food:          Put hands over stomach
• Water:        Put hands over mouth
• Shelter:       Put hands over head
• Space:        Put arms out to sides

An animal can not change what it is looking for until the next round.

4. Each student that represents habitat should decide which habitat resource he or she wishes to be. Like the species, the habitat students may not change within the round, but can change the following round.

5. Before each round, count the number of animals and make a note of this number on the white board. Keep a tally for graphing later, or chart as you go on a simple line graph (X = round/year; Y = # species in population). Like so:

	# Animals	# Predators
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Year 7
…

6. Have the two groups (species and habitat) turn their backs to each other. Each animal should make the sign for the habitat resource that it is looking for, and each habitat resource should make the sign for what it wishes to be. Give the students a few moments to decide what they will be and get their hands in place.

7. When everyone in both groups is ready, have both groups turn around and face each other while continuing to hold their signs.

8. Give them a signal and let the animals walk/run to the habitat and find a student who has the same sign. The animals that find what they need will survive and reproduce and need to take the habitat resource back to the starting place. Have the animal lock arms with the resource and bring him back to the animal line. The resource student becomes an animal. Animals that do not find the resource they need die and become habitat (representing natural population flux). If more than one animal tries to get the same habitat component, the one to get there first survives.

9. Tell the students that this represented one year in the life of this species population and ask what happened. Most of the animals should have found what they needed and successfully reproduced. This has resulted in an increase in the animal population.

10. Count the number of animals and record it in the table.

11. Have the students do this activity for at least 7-10 more rounds (representing 7-10 years). Keep the pace brisk.

Note: After the first few rounds, introduce a predator. The predator may move along the sidelines, stalking the species. Each round the predator may throw a Nerf ball at the animals as they run by. If the Nerf ball hits an animal, it dies and may return in the next round as habitat or as another predator. If you allow the predator population to increase, keep data records on this population as well. You may want to limit the number of throwing attempts a predator has each round (depending on the demeanor and accuracy of your predator!).

 

PLANT ROUND

Note: The stationary nature of plants makes playing this round a bit different than the animal round. Instead of the plants seeking out their own sunlight, nutrients, water, or space, the resources are instead charged with finding a plant that will use them.

1. Ask the students to count off in fours. Have the 1’s go to the middle of the field and stand in a line about shoulder-width apart. This group is the plant species. Have the 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s line up at one end of the playing field, facing the 1’s. This group is habitat. This time, plant species are stationary. Habitat resources are mobile and are charged with finding a plant that wants to use them.

2. During each round of the activity, each plant may choose just one of its four basic resource needs. When a plant is looking for:

• Nutrients:    Put hands on toes
• Sunlight:     Put hands over head
• Water:        Put hands on knees
• Space:        Put arms out to sides

A plant can not change its resource needs until the next round.

3. Each student that represents habitat should decide which habitat resource he or she wishes to be. Like the plants, the habitat students may not change within the round, but can change the following round.

4. Before each round, count the number of plants and make a note of this number on the white board. Keep a tally for graphing later, or chart as you go on a simple line graph (X = round/year; Y = # species in population). Like so:

	# Plants	# Primary Consumers
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Year 7
…

5. Have the two groups (species and habitat) turn their backs to each other. Each plant should make the sign for the habitat resource that it needs, and each habitat resource should make the sign for what it wishes to be. Give the students a few moments to decide what they will be and get their hands in place.

6. When everyone in both groups is ready, have both groups turn around and face each other while continuing to hold their signs.

7. Give them a signal and let the habitat walk/run to a plant that needs it. The plants must stay in one place while the appropriate resources find them. The plants that end up with what they need survive and reproduce (the resource student becomes a new plant). Plants that do not get the resource they need die and become habitat (representing natural population flux). If more than one habitat resource tries to get to the same plant, the one who got to the plant first becomes a new plant and the other remains a resource during the next round.

8. Tell the students that this represented one year in the life of this species population and ask what happened. Most of the plants should have gotten the resources they needed and successfully reproduced. This has resulted in an increase in the plant population.

9. Count the number of plants and record it in the table.

10. Have the students perform this activity for at least 7-10 more rounds (representing 7-10 years). Keep the pace brisk.

Note: After the first few rounds, introduce a primary consumer/ herbivore. The consumer may move along the sidelines. Each round the consumer may throw a Nerf ball (for fun, call it a root ball) at a plant. If the Nerf ball hits a plant, it becomes the consumer’s dinner and may return in the next round as habitat or as another consumer. Plants may catch the Nerf ball to avoid being eaten.  If you allow the consumer population to increase, keep data records on this population as well. You may want to limit the number of throwing attempts a consumer has each round (depending on the demeanor and accuracy of your consumer!).

 

 

Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas

Discuss the changes in the animal and plant populations over time. Use the flip-chart or dry-erase board to graph the populations over the 10 rounds/years. Encourage students to use their experience and the graph to explain what happened to the populations through time. Guided discussion or essay questions may include:

• In what years does the population increase/ decrease most dramatically?
• Why do you think the population crashed in Year X?
• Why does the population increase in Year X?
• Why doesn’t the population fluctuate as much in Years X through X?
• Summarize students’ ideas and claims.

Graph and discuss the changes in the animal and plant populations over time in response to predators/ consumers. Ask students to use their experiences and the graph to explain/ talk through what happened. Guided discussion or essay questions may include:

• What impact did the predators and consumers have on the animals and plants?
• As a scientist or manager interested in maintaining species populations, how would you ensure the health of the animal and plant populations?
• Summarize students’ ideas/ hypotheses/ conclusions.

Extension Ideas

A Have a great idea to extend students’ learning? Please share it with us in the comments section below.

Resources

Here is a growing list of classroom management suggestions from those who have done this before. Please share yours with us.

• Designate an area for “circling up” before you start and in between rounds to review what is happening

• Re-focus students and check for understanding in between rounds by asking them what happened that round. For example: Mary, you were a sparrow and now you’re part of the habitat. What happened?”

• Be clear when you’re switching from animals to plants that habitat resources have changed.

• If your predator/ consumer has lousy aim, have them gently tag the species with the ball.

References

Oh Deer!, Project WILD K-12 Curriculum and Activity Guide