There’s a New Bird in Town

Question(s)

How does the introduction of a new species to a habitat affect native species?

Overview

Students experience how an invasive species may out-compete native species for vital resources. This high stakes, high energy game simulates the introduction of non-native and invasive species using MnMs and various kitchen drawer items. Students experience firsthand what happens and what if feels like when native and invasive species compete for essential resources. This is also an excellent activity for introducing concepts such as habitats, limiting resources, physical adaptations, and competition among species.

In this Biodiversity Watershed Experience, There’s a New Bird in Town serves as an introduction to invasive species, and helps students connect what they’ve already learned about biodiversity with issues surrounding non-native and invasive species introductions. This game sets the stage for students to conduct their own investigation about how invasive species impact the biodiversity in their local watershed.

Standards (MLR)

Learning Objectives

• Students are motivated to learn about invasive species: how non-native species are introduced, how they become invasive, and the economic and environmental impact they have.
• Students are able transfer and generalize concepts gained in this activity to understand the dynamics and impacts of non-native and invasive species on native species.

Materials

• MnM’s
• Chopsticks
• Spoons
• Paper bowls
• Species labels: Bluebird, Sparrow (Note: These are not necessary but the kids love wearing them around all day. The number of labels will depend on the number of students.)

Time Needed

Introduction: 10 minutes

Activity: 25 minutes

Debrief: 10 minutes

Activity Procedure

Caution: Some students may take the competition of this activity a little too seriously resulting in severe spoon- or chopstick-related injuries. You may want to take the edge off a little by promising the students equal amounts of MnM’s after the activity is over.

Preparation

1. Fill bowls with MnM’s to represent habitat. You will need one bowl for every two students.
2. Create stations where two students can work opposite each other or next to each other. Each student will need an empty bowl.
3. List on the board the concepts you chose to focus on. They may include: Habitat, limiting resources, physical adaptations, competition among species, native species, non-native species, invasive species.

Activity

1. Introduce the activity. Students will be competing for limited resources. One group will represent Maine’s native bluebirds, and another group will represent sparrows (invasive to Maine).
2. Give students an overview of the bluebird/ sparrow history and relationship. Bluebirds are native to Maine. Maine’s bluebird population began declining in the 1970s with the introduction of sparrows and starlings, and a decline in suitable habitat. Bluebirds and sparrows are both cavity nesters. Sparrows are known to claim bluebird nesting sites by killing adult bluebirds and their young and eggs. Sparrows also out-compete bluebirds for food (mostly insects).
3. Have all the students stand in the back of the room.
4. Designate half of the students as bluebirds and half as sparrows.
5. Give the bluebirds the chopsticks.
6. Tell the bluebirds to sit at a station and begin picking up the MnM’s from the habitat bowl and placing them in their own bowl.
7. After a few minutes stop the bluebirds and introduce the invasive sparrows.
8. Give the sparrows a spoon. Tell them they must hold it by the spoon-end.
9. Tell the group that the invasive sparrows can pick MnM’s from both the habitat bowl and the bluebird’s bowl by using the handle-end of the spoon. (Note: Listen for a chorus of “Hey, no fair!” from the bluebirds.)
10. Stop the activity. Ask the bluebirds and sparrows to each count the number of MnM’s they have in their bowls. Record class results in a table. Ask students if they see a pattern in the results. It should be clear that the sparrows were better able to secure more MnM resources than the struggling bluebirds
11. Discuss as a class:

• What do the MnM’s, chopsticks, and spoons represent?
• Why were the sparrows more successful?
• What do you predict would happen to the bluebird population over time?
• Would you try to control the sparrow population to help the bluebirds? Why or why not?

Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas

1. Students answer discussion questions in a journal.
2. Students are given another scenario where they transfer their knowledge by identifying examples of biodiversity, adaptation, invasive species, predators, competition, disease immunity, habitat, and stressors.

Have a great reflection idea? Share it with us all in the comments section below. We’ll use it!

Extension Ideas

Introduce additional stressors on the native bluebird population. Predation by kestrels and house cats:

1. Designate 2-3 students to be predators.
2. Give predators 1 “Dead” label each.
3. Near the end of the activity, the predators may tag 1 bluebird each with their “Dead” label. They may not tag a sparrow.

Disease:

1. Mark a few of the MnM’s in the bowls with whiteout. Do not draw students’ attention to these marked MnM’s.
2. At the end of the activity, ask the bluebirds and sparrows to check their bowls for MnM’s tagged with whiteout. These MnM’s carry a disease that kills native bluebirds but not the invasive sparrows.
3. Add a discussion question:
   • a. Why were the sparrows immune to the disease, but the bluebirds susceptible?
   • b. How would the results be different if the disease affected the sparrows but not the bluebirds?

Environmental stress:

1. Simulate a stress to the environment such as a residential development by having the sparrows and bluebirds start competing for resources the same time.
2. Add a discussion question:
   • a. Why did the bluebirds fare much worse this time?
   • b. How is an environmental stress good for the sparrows and bad for the bluebirds?

Have another extension idea brewing? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

Resources

Have a related resource to share? Please note it in the comments section below.

References

G. Radcliffe, Centreville Middle School, 2004, Introduction to Life Lab # 2: Adaptations: Beaks and Feet