"Swamp Supper" Mr. Mark Musselman Audubon at the Francis Beidler Forest

Transcription

1 "Swamp Supper" Mr. Mark Musselman Audubon at the Francis Beidler Forest Overview: The forest offers a variety of items and organisms for consumption. Slowing down and taking an inventory at various sites along the low boardwalk helps students to see the bounty and the interconnectivity of species in a food web. Connection to the Curriculum: Recall the basic needs of animals (including air, water, food, and shelter) for energy, growth, and protection Summarize the interdependence between animals and as sources of food and shelter Summarize the organization of simple food chains (including the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers). Suggested Grade Range: 2 nd and 3 rd Time: 30 minutes Materials Needed: 1. Station markers 2. Clipboard 3. Pencil 4. Data sheet 5. Magnetic images of and animals. 6. Portable magnetic white board and dry erase markers. Objectives: 1. Students will be able to identify the basic needs of animals (air, water, food, shelter, space). 2. Students will be able to create a simple food chain using organisms they observed from the low boardwalk. Procedures: 1. Prior to the group arriving, mark stations along low boardwalk. 2. Divide students into groups of two. 3. Provide each group with a clipboard, pencil, and data sheet. 4. Students need to visit each station, but need not do so in sequential order. The class should move as a group or be divided into two groups starting at separate stations. 5. Have students brainstorm what they already know about the needs of animals. Guide the students, if they do not share all of the following: air, water, food, shelter, and space. 6. Once at a station, student teams will use their observation skills to identify items that can be eaten (berries, leaves, insects), to identify signs of animals or eating activity (tracks, woodpecker holes, chewed leaves), and to record any animal seen or heard (toad, bird, mosquito). 7. Once data is collected from each station, students will answer the question, What other animals do you think are here but were not noticed? (s, bobcats, snakes, hawks, mice, etc.)

2 8. Using the data collected and any animals listed for #5, students will create a simple food chain on the back of the data sheet. For example, a tree drilled by a woodpecker would show food (insects) for the woodpecker, food (tree) for the insects, the sun helping produce food and a connection between sun plant insects woodpecker. This step can be done at Beidler Forest, time permitting, or taken back to school as a follow-up activity. OR CONTINUE 9. Provide each student with a magnet containing a picture of a plant or animal. Remind students not to flex the magnets as this will degrade the image. 10. Have students share the subjects of their magnets and form a food chain of at least three individuals. 11. Once a chain of at least three is created, have students place their magnets on the magnetic white board drawing lines connecting their magnets. Arrows should point to the animal doing the eating (showing the direction of energy flow). Each new group should draw lines for any connections that they see to food chains of previous groups. 12. Once all the magnets have been placed, ask students to share their observations regarding the food web. (complex, everything is connected, there are lots of lines, etc.) 13. Remove a magnet showing a plant. Ask the students what they think will happen to the remainder of the food web. (There will be fewer plant-eating animals that survive, which means that there will be less food for those animals that eat the plant-eating animals.) What would happen if a type of animal that some people dislike or fear, such as a snake, were removed? (Snakes eat rodents, so there would be more rodents. Rodents eat, so there would be fewer available for other plant-eating animals [deer, rabbits, squirrels, insects, etc.], including humans.)

3 Suggested Evaluation: 1. Teacher observation. Student food chains should contain at a minimum the sun, a producer, a primary consumer, and a secondary consumer. 2. On a quiz, have students select which of the following is correct (answer is D): The arrows point to what is doing the eating and the direction of energy flow. For example, in A the is shown eating. A. B. C. D. 3. What are the basic needs of animals? (answer is air, water, food, shelter, and space) Extending the Lesson: 1. Create a simple food chain for an ecosystem not visited (mountains, ocean, desert, etc.). Resources: 1. Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest webpage at

4 Student Data Sheet Name: Station # What might be eaten by animals? What signs are here? What animals are here? #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 What other animals do you think are here but were not noticed?

5 Sample Data Sheet (students will not be as specific: bird or woodpecker instead of red-bellied woodpecker; red berry instead of partridge berry) Station # What might be eaten by animals? What signs are here? What animals are here? #1 Jack-in-the-pulpit berries (can simply write red berries ), partridge berries, dwarf palmetto berries, leaves, hickory nuts, pine cones, acorns, sweetgum balls Chewed pine cones Birds, insects, spiders, ants, mosquitoes, squirrel #2 Partridge berries, jack-in-thepulpit berries, insects, centipede, lichen, acorns, dead wood/leaves, flowers #3 Mosquitoes, flowers, dead wood/leaves, spiders, acorns, partridge berries, fungus, dwarf palmetto berries #4 Dead wood/leaves, moth, flowers, partridge berries, leaves, sweetgum ball, fungus, pine cone #5 Mosquitoes, pine cones, holly tree berries, dead wood/leaves, fungus, acorns, spiders #6 Flowers, fly, mosquitoes, dead wood/leaves, acorns, dwarf palmetto berries #7 Mosquitoes, partridge berries, leaves, dead wood/leaves, fungus, pine cone, holly tree berries, spider Deer tracks, chewed leaves Deer tracks, woodpecker holes Woodpecker holes, hog rooting, chewed pine cone Chewed fungus, chewed leaves, chewed pine cones, chewed acorns, yellow-bellied sapsucker holes Chewed leaves, crayfish mounds, raccoon tracks Crow call Birds, centipede, fly, spiders Mud turtle, mosquitoes, birds, spiders, butterfly, squirrel Moth, squirrel Mosquitoes, squirrel, slimy salamander, redbellied woodpecker, spiders Fly, mosquitoes, Carolina Wren, frogs, squirrel, woodpeckers Mosquitoes, bee, spider What other animals do you think are here but were not noticed? Owls, snakes, bobcat, hawks