Predator-Prey - Afternoon Activity

After our classes, and a short break, we prepared for our afternoon activity.  We were told we would be outside for 2 hours and we should meet in the gym.   We talked about animals and the food chain.  When our discussions was finished, students were labeled.  They were labeled (literally - with marks on their faces) as bullfrogs, snakes, walking sticks, dragonflies, or hawks (I may be forgetting one and I am sure the kids will let me know, lol).  Some students also had a red x marked on them without knowing why.  We were informed of the rules of the activity and how to "attack" our prey.

Off to the property (the woods, the enchanted forest, the prairie) to begin our attempt to survive.  When the first attack occurred, the markings were changed.  Whatever you were attacked by, you became that species (simulating how animal populations can grow when they are safe from their prey).  By the end of the game, which started with 2 hawks, we had several more.  All quantities of each species had changed pretty drastically.  This ultimate game of tag became a great representation of the food chain and how dangerous animal environments can be when there are too few or too many of any one species.

The x that was on students represented DDT (or pesticides).  Back in the 1907's, DDT was widely used to kill mosquitoes.  What no one know at that time as that while the mosquitoes were kept in check, the poisons in DDT remained in the bodies of animals and insects that eat mosquitoes to survive.  So if frogs ate mosquitoes treated with DDT, and snakes at the frogs, and hawks ate the snakes - then ultimately, the hawks were poisoned.  Big deal, right?  No.  The eggs that these hawks then produced had very soft shells and resulted in hawks becoming endangered since they could not successfully reproduce.  The staff also incorporated the effects of man - indicating that an entire species would have to migrate due to a water park being constructed on the habitat of these animals.

What a great way to learn how damaging we can be to environments.