Habitat LESSON PLAN

 

Name(s): Annessa Allan, Kathy Goepfert, & Travis Lara

 

Title of Lesson: The Food Chain Connection

 

Date of Lesson: 4^th Week, Day 4

 

Length of Lesson: 1 hour

 

Description of the Class: 8^th Grade Science

              

Source of the Lesson:

               The lesson was acquired from Project Wild Elementary Activity Guide copyright 1986.

 

TEKS Addressed:

(a)  Introduction.

(2)  As students learn science skills, they identify the roles of both human activities and natural events in altering Earth systems.

(5)  Science is a way of learning about the natural world.

(6)  A system is a collection of cycles, structures, and processes that interact.

(7)  Investigations are used to learn about the natural world.

 

 

I.                  Overview

The lesson will focus on the students learning about living in a habitat and how resources, thought sometimes fixed in ratio, in that habitat are vital to existence.

 

II.               Performance Objectives

The student will be able to: Understand what makes up a habitat, how each resources is in a balance with the others, and what one can do to keep the balance of those said resources intact.

 

III.            Resources, Materials, and Supplies Needed

5 colors of construction paper or light posterboard (2 or 3 sheets of each color)

envelopes (1 per student)

1 blindfold

 

 

IV.             Safety Considerations

Students need to be aware of their surroundings and need to take into consideration their own personal space as well as others. Also, students, knowing that Bears WALK in the forest, need to take their time and not run around during the activity for safety reasons.

 

V.                Supplementary Materials, Handouts

No supplemental handouts will be given to the students.

 

Five E Organization

 

                      Teacher Does                                                                          Student Does

 

Engage: Ask the students what they live with on a day to day basis   Questions: What can you not live without at your house?

Students will give examples and begin to build a list of important things that they like to have in their life. Answers: Food, Water, Electronic equipment, etc.

 

Evaluate

Students will give examples from their own lives and will be ready to proceed.

 

Explore: Go through “How many bears can Live in the Forest?” Game.   Questions: What happens if we put a wounded bear in the forest? What happens when a bear needs to gather more resources than another (i.e. the mother bear)

Students should be able to complete the game and are involved with the activity taking place.   Answers: Wounded bear needs to learn to compensate if it wants to continue to survive in the habitat. Mother bear needs to fight to make sure she gets enough to have both herself and her cubs exist in the habitat.

 

Evaluate

Watch activity and students should be actively involved with the game .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explain: Discussion about aspects of habitats, the difference in habitats, and what is needed to survive in those given spaces.     Questions: How many bears are able to live in this forest? What does this say about the resources given? What if one was not part of the forest?

Students should be able to pull from the experiences, both from the activity as well as from lecture, to find out how a habitat works in nature and what components are necessary for it to work the way it does.   Answers: Depending upon results, will tell how many bears can coexist in our forest. Resources are valuable and without one, the habitat would be changed.

 

Evaluate

See if they actually understood the concepts that were portrayed both in the activity and the lecture.

 

Extend/Elaborate: .Discussion of what would be needed to undertake a new habitat, without the luxuries that they have now.   Questions: What are things that you could give up? What are things that you could not live without?

Students are asked to draw from the activity’s interaction and see what they need to basically survive in an earth-like existence.   Answers: Things that do not necessarily aid in primary existence (i.e. electronic equipment, technology, etc.) Water, Food, shelter, air (basic life ingredients)

 

Evaluate

Students should be able to draw conclusions from this activity and begin to think toward their end projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Many Bears Can Live in This Forest?

Objectives:

• Define a major component of habitat
• Identify a limiting factor

 

Background:

               Black bear habitat limits black bear populations, especially through the influences of shelter, food supply, and the social tolerances or territoriality of the animal. Shelter or cover is a prime factor. Black bears need cover – for feeding, hiding, bedding, traveling, raising cubs, and for denning. With limits of space, adult bears will kill young bears or run them out of the area. These young bears must keep moving around either until they die or find an area vacated by the death of an adult.

               When food supplies are reduced by factors such as climatic fluctuations, competition becomes more intense. Some adult bears might temporarily move to seldom-used areas of their home range, sometimes many miles away. They must live on what food is available in that area. These individuals may become thin and in poor condition for winter hibernation or, in the case of young bears, be forced from the area by more aggressive bears.

               All components of habitat are important. Food, water, shelter and space must not only be available – but must be available in an arrangement suitable to meet the animals’ needs. For black bears, shelter is especially important.

               All possible conditions are not covered by the design of the activity. However, by this simple illustration, it is possible for students to quickly grasp the essential nature of the concept of limiting factors.

               The major purpose of this activity is for students to recognize the importance of suitable habitat. Inadequate food and/or shelter are 2 examples of what is called a limiting factor – something which affects the survival of an animal or a population of animals.

 

Materials:

·        5 colors of construction paper or light posterboard (2 or 3 sheets of each color)

·        1 black felt pen

·        envelopes (1 per student)

·        pencils

·        1 blindfold

 

Procedure:

1. Make up a set of 2” X 2” cards. For 30 students, make 30 cards of each of the 5 colors to represent food as follows:
• Orange – nuts (acorns, pecans, walnuts, hickory); mark 5 pieces N-20; mark 25 pieces N-10
• Blue – berries and fruit (blackberries, elderberries, raspberries, cherries); mark 5 pieces B-20; mark 20 pieces B-10.
• Yellow – insects (grub worms, larvae, ants, termites); mark 5 pieces I-12; mark 25 pieces I-6
• Red – meat (mice, rodents, peccaries, beaver, muskrats, young deer); mark 5 pieces M-8; mark 25 pieces M-4
• Green – plants (leaves, grasses, herbs); mark 5 pieces P-20; mark 25 pieces P-10

*You can also include water by marking an additional 50 cards of light blue paper. Mark 10 each with R, L, ST, SP and M for rivers, lakes, streams, springs and marshes.

Note:

The following estimates of total lbs. of food for 1 bear in 10 days is used:

Nuts – 20 lbs = 25%

Berries and fruit – 20 lbs = 25%

Insects – 12 pounds = 15%

Meat – 8 lbs = 10%

Plants – 20 lbs = 25%

                      80 lbs of food

 

2. Scatter the paper over a fairly large area (50’ X 50’).
3. Have each student write his or her name on an envelope. This will represent their den and should be left at the starting line secured by a rock.
4. Students line up at starting line next to their den. “You are now all black bears. All bears are not alike just like you and I are not alike. Among you is a young bear who has not yet found his own territory. Last week he met up with a larger male bear in that bear’s territory. He could not get away in time and was hurt. He has a broken leg. (Assign 1 student to be this bear – he must now hop on one leg). Another bear is a young female who investigated a porcupine too closely. She was blinded by the quills. (Assign 1 student to be this bear – she must wear the blindfold). The 3^rd special bear is a mother bear with 2 fairly young cubs. She must gather twice as much to fee her cubs. (Assign 1 student to be mother bear.)
5. Do NOT tell the students what the colors or markings on the papers represent. Tell them only that they represent different types of bear food. Since bears are omnivores, they like a wide assortment of food so they should gather a variety of colors.
6. Students must WALK in the forest. Bears do not run down their food, they gather it. As students find each square of food, they should return it to their den (put it in their envelope) then return to the forest. [Bears would actually eat as they find and not return to their dens – but this makes the game more manageable.]
7. When all colored squares have been picked up, the game is over. Students should pick up their envelopes and return to class or a place you can reflect.
8. Explain what the colors and numbers represent. Students add up the total # of lbs. they gathered and write it on the outside of the envelope.
9. On board, list crippled, blind and mother and record how much food they gathered. Record all other responses. Each bear needs 80 to survive. Mother needs 160. How many survived? Was there enough to feed all bears? Discuss special bears. Who would survive between mother and cubs? (She would eat first. Cubs would starve without her anyway. She can have more cubs if she survives.)
10. If you included water squares, each bear must have 1 blue square to survive. Water can be a limiting factor.
11. Ask each student to record how many lbs they gathered in each of the 5 categories. Convert these into percentages of total poundage of food. Show black bears typical preference. Would there be a difference in a bear that survived but ate mostly plants?
12. Find the class total for all the pounds of food they gathered as a class. Divide the total by 80 pounds needed for survival. This is how many bears the habitat COULD support. Why did only --- bears survive when the class did the activity? Is that realistic? What percentage of bears survived? What percentage of bears would have survived if the food were divided evenly? What limiting factors, cultural and natural, would be likely to actually influence the survival of individual bears and populations of bears in an area?

 

EXTENSION:

1. Cut green paper into 2” X 2” squares. For a class of 30 students, make 150 squares. Divide into 5 piles and mark B, T, D, H and F. These stand for bedding, travelways, dens, hiding cover, and feeding sites.
• Bedding – black bears are usually active in early morning and late evening and bedded most the other times. Bedding sites are usually in areas of dense vegetation, steep topography and/or large trees where the bears feel secure.
• Travelways – bears require corridors of cover (thick vegetation of steep topography) to enable them to travel between areas of food, water and shelter.
• Dens – black bears use dens as shelter for hibernation from Nov – April.
• Hiding cover – they escape danger from predators and other bears by hiding in thick cover.
• Bears will often use areas with less cover than hiding areas or bedding sites for feeding, but thick hiding cover is often close by.
2. In a fairly large area, scatter the paper (50’ X 50’).
3. Review the components of habitat (food, water, shelter, space in particular arrangement). Tell them that the squares represent one concept of the bear’s habitat. Don’t disclose what the markings mean.
4. Students will WALK into the forest and pick up the squares.
5. When they have all been picked up, the game is over and you may return to class.
6. Students separate their squares into piles. Using a board, record each student’s data. Ask the students to guess what the letters might represent – giving them the clue that it has to do with a black bear’s shelter. What would happen if a student/bear did not have each one of each type of shelter?
• Den – couldn’t live through cold winter
• Travelways – home ranges become fragmented and bears cannot reach needed food, water or shelter
• Feeding – starve
• Hiding cover – injured by predators or other bears
• Bedding –vulnerable to predators while asleep

Shelter is a very important part of a black bear’s habitat. In the game, a “limiting factor” of a bear’s survival is shelter. What other factors can become a “limiting factor”? (Water and space. Food can be, but bears are omnivores and can eat many things to survive.)