Title:Predator/Prey Simulation

Time Frame: 2-2.5 hours

Lesson Overview:

Predator/prey is a guided simulation designed to increase awareness and appreciation of the predator/prey relationship that animals exhibit in a forest and field ecosystem. Participants will be assigned a role in the food chain, conduct the simulation, and assess factors affecting their survival at the end of the simulation. Evaluation will include a discussion noting that changes in the environment that may be helpful to some organisms and harmful to others.

Teacher Background: See “Additional Teacher Notes and Reminders” at end of lesson.

Enduring Understanding & Essential Questions:

Enduring Understandings:

● Populations may be limited by a myriad of factors.● Populations increase or decrease relative to the availability of resources and conditions of the

environment.● Adaptations are characteristics which allow organisms to survive and reproduce in their

environment.

Essential Questions:

What are the limiting factors that determine if an organism can survive in an environment?Which adaptations allow individual organisms to survive in this ecosystem?

Next Generation Science Standards:

Performance Expectation

MS-LS2-1.

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

MS-LS2-3.

Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas Crosscutting Concepts

MS-LS2-3 Develop a model to describe phenomena

LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems* In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction. (MS-LS2-1)

*Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources. (MS-LS2-1)

LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and ResilienceEcosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. (MS-LS2-4)

Similarly, predatory actions may reduce the number of organisms or eliminate whole populations of organisms. Mutually beneficial interactions, in contrast, may become so interdependent that each organism requires the other for survival. Although the species involved in these competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems, the patterns of interactions of organisms with their environments, both living and non-living, are shared. (MS-LS2-2)

Stability and Change: Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part. MS-LS2-5

Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards

STANDARD 4: POPULATIONS, COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS

The student will use physical, chemical, biological, and ecological concepts to analyze and explain the interdependence of humans and organisms in populations, communities and ecosystems.

Topic B:Population Dynamics

Indicator 1: Analyze the growth or decline of populations and identify a variety of responsible

factors.

Topic C:Community and Ecosystem Dynamics

Indicator 1: Explain how the interrelationships and interdependencies of organisms and populations contribute to the dynamics of communities and ecosystems.

Topic D: Stability in Populations, Communities and Ecosystems

Indicator 1: Use models and provide examples to show how the interaction and interdependence of populations contribute to the stability of populations, communities and ecosystems.

5E Lesson

Engage/Explain: (Preparation)

Discuss with students:

Today we will be participating in a simulation. What is a simulation and what are some examples of simulations you are familiar with? The Science and Engineering Practice we will be using today is “Develop a Model to Describe Phenomena”.

Today you will simulate being a mammal (native animal) in a Maryland

Preparation Notes for the Teacher:

forest ecosystem. Discuss the characteristics of mammals. It is warm blooded, has hair or fur, gives birth to live young, and nurses its young. Discuss the types of mammals that might live in this area.

Your main goal is to survive. What are the basic requirements for survival? Our simulation will focus on food and water

Discuss energy transfer in ecosystems – food webs and chains and/or the energy pyramid. Use vocabulary words like producer, consumer, herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore.

Assign role designations

1. Inform the students that you are going to begin handing out equipment needed for the simulation. You are not going to explain each item right as you hand it out, but you will explain about all of it before the simulation begins. Students should refrain from asking questions about the equipment.

2. Check for any special needs within the group. For example: injuries, asthma, mobility issues, or other special needs. These students may be assigned the special roles as appropriate. Hand these students the white, black and yellow pinnies.

3. If there are no students with special needs, have the students select the most caring student. Hand this child the white pinnie and have that student sit apart from the group. Do not tell the student that they are the Veterinarian. Have the students select a second student who has a good sense of humor. Give this student the black pinnie and ask them to sit with the student with the white pinnie. Do not tell the student that they are Disease.

4. Select 10 % of the group and give them red equipment (one pinnie and one life ring each). Assign them a seating area. Do not tell them that they are carnivores.

5. Double the number of reds and pass out that number of blue sets of equipment (one pinnie and one life ring each). Assign them a seating area. Do not tell them that they are omnivores.

6. The remaining students are in the green group. Give each student one green pinnie and one life ring. Assign them their own seating area. Do not tell them that they are herbivores.

Explain role requirements

1. Explain to the class that the Reds, Blues and Greens all will represent groups of animals. Their goal is to finish the simulation alive.

2. Food, water, and shelter are needed to survive. For this simulation, all animals must do two things in order to survive, eat and drink. All the animals sitting in the room must drink water. Show the group the sample blue board. Explain that this is the water station where they will be getting drinks of water. Show the hole-punch and how it operates. Tell the group that they must punch TWO different patterns on their blue cardboard water tags to survive. Each water station has its own unique pattern. The reds, blues, and greens each must get at least two different drinks by the end of the simulation.

3. The discussion will now move to food.

a. What type of mammal only eats plants? Name a few, trying to keep the focus on native animals. If you are wearing green you are an herbivore. The greens, herbivores, eat only plants. We do not want the students actually eating plants so we imported the delicious “red berry bushes”. The red berry bushes have been planted in the simulation area and look like the red plastic board. (Show a red board as an example). The Greens (herbivores) must find two different red berry stations and punch the patterns they find onto their pink cardboard slips of paper.

b. What type of mammal eats meat and plants? Name a few, trying to keep the focus on native animals. If you are wearing blue you are an omnivore. The Blues (omnivores) must find at least one “red berry bush” and punch the pattern onto their pink tag. They may eat more, but they must have at least one. The meat they eat is herbivores. They must find and “kill” at least one herbivore. “Killing” is accomplished by tagging the green herbivore. When an herbivore is tagged, he/she must surrender one of their green life tags (the plastic tag) to the omnivore that has tagged them. There is a ten-second grace period during which the omnivore may not retag the same animal. The challenge is to see which omnivores can eat the most herbivores. Omnivores do not eat each other or up the food chain.

c. What type of mammal eats only meat? Name a few. Carnivores don’t have the enzymes in their stomach to digest plant material so they only eat meat. The Reds, carnivores, do not have a red

Display the water station board for the students and demonstrate how to punch paper card.

Display the berry board for the students and demonstrate how to punch the paper card.

Native herbivores: white tailed deer, rabbit, beaver

Model how the “kill” occurs and how the exchange of “life” is carried out. Remind students that prey may not be tagged by another predator while involved in a life change with a predator.

Native omnivores: gray fox, red fox, raccoon, black bear, chipmunk, coyote,

cardboard tag; because they cannot eat plants they eat omnivores and herbivores. They must kill at least two animals in order to survive. The challenge is to see which carnivores can eat the most. Carnivores no not eat each other.

4. Now the special roles are introduced. Discuss with the students what else is in the environment that may help or harm the mammals.

a. Introduce disease. The disease represents rabies: a fatal disease to all warm blooded animals. Herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores are all warm-blooded animals. Disease has the goal of simply killing as many animals as he/she can. Therefore, give disease an empty life ring (shower curtain ring). If Disease tags an animal, the animal must surrender one of his/her life tags that match the color of their pinnie. The animal can be retagged after the 10-second grace period.

b. Introduce the Veterinarian. The Veterinarian has a life ring full of extra green, blue, and red plastic life tags. (There should be one tag for each participant on his/her ring). Animals that have lost all their life tags are sick, but are not dead until the end of the simulation. If they find themselves without any of their life tags, they should find the Veterinarian as soon as possible. The Veterinarian may give one life tag to a sick animal. The veterinarian’s second job is to control disease. The Veterinarian carries a squirt bottle of water. The Veterinarian may spray disease with the water. This water is really a vaccine, which has the effect of freezing disease for 2 minutes. It is important that disease wear a watch. The Veterinarian can be infected by the disease since he/she is also warm-blooded. If disease tags the Veterinarian he/she must give up one of each color life tag carried. Animals in the simulation do not eat the veterinarian. In summary, the veterinarian is to keep as many animals alive as possible while keeping disease in-check during the simulation.

c. Introduce the Elements/Natural Disaster. Elements are wearing yellow pinnies and carry empty life rings. Elements are natural disasters (tornado, hurricane, blizzard, etc.). Their goal is to destroy the environment and collect as many life tags as possible. They can tag all other participants. If they tag the Veterinarian and Disease, they collect one of each color life tag carried. The Veterinarian cannot stop disaster with the vaccine.

d. Introduce Road Warrior, who also wears a yellow pinnie and carries an empty life ring. This role is used for students with mobility challenges. This student carries a whistle and guards the boundaries. If any student goes out-of-bounds, the road warrior blows the

opossum, skunk

Native carnivores: hawk, eagle, bobcat, red fox, gray fox

The details (vet and disease interactions) can be adapted if needed. For example, if student selected to be Vet has limited mobility, you might want to omit the details of Disease and vet tagging each other.

It may be useful to emphasize how the student’s role assignments represent the structure of the energy pyramid (greatest number of herbivores, then omnivores, smallest number of carnivores). Consider discussing why this occurs.

Why do the students simulating herbivores

whistle and collects a life tag from that student.

e. Introduce Human. This is used for groups of more than 40 students; the human can have a devastating effect on the animals. This role is for students unable to move or process the requirements of the other roles. The human represents hunters, pollution, or any other human impact. The student can stand with an adult. When they see any other participant, except the elements, they blow the whistle and point at the student. That student must come to the human and give them a life tag. The Disease and Veterinarian should give one of each color life tag carried. This role can also be used to engage a student with limited mobility in the simulation.

Survival Requirements and End of Simulation

For survival, students must have 2 waters, 2 foods, and at least one of their own color life tags. No mammal in the simulation eats its own kind or “up” the food chain. There are no time-outs for any reason except medical emergency. Explain to the students that the simulation will end with several long blasts on the horn (air horn or similar very loud horn). When the horn sounds, the simulation is over. No action can take place after the horn sounds. All players should report back to the starting area.

Record the number of students for each category prior to leaving the instruction area. This can be recorded on a portable white board or on a permanent board if one is available in the instruction area.

Explore: (Action)

Conduct Simulation

Walk the students to the simulation area. Review the boundaries and show the students the starting point. Review safety details:

❖ What the teacher location will be in case of an emergency during the

start with 4 plastic life cards and those simulating carnivores start with only 2?

Roles such as Natural Disaster, Road Warrior, and Human are optional and can be used based on the size and make up of your group.

Remember in timing the length of time for the simulation to reserve enough instructional time for reflection questions and to reset the materials for the next group.

simulation

❖ Boundaries – USE MAPS - paths large enough to drive a tractor on; never cross those large boundaries

❖ Never cross a stream, bridge, or road

❖ If you’re lost, stay where you are and staff will be looking for you.

❖ Listen for ending signal and return immediately to designated area

❖ Pitfalls – watch out for holes, branches, briars, barbed wire, poison ivy

❖ Do not climb trees. No participant in this simulation is arboreal, a tree climber.

❖ This is a park and people may be on the trails.

❖ “Keep an eye out” for each other.

❖ Teachers are not home base. If you are out of lives, look for the doctor.

Call all the herbivores together. Review what they need to have to survive when the simulation ends (two drinks, two foods and at least one green life tag). There should be a poster available included with the instructional materials to provide a visual reminder. Release herbivores.

Next call the omnivores together. Review what they need to have to survive when the simulation ends (two drinks, one food stamp, at least one of their own blue life tags, and at least one green food tag). Again, refer to poster for visual. Release them 3 – 4 minutes after the herbivores have left.

Call the carnivores over to the start. Review what they need to have to survive when the simulation ends (two drinks stamped on their blue cards, at least one of their red life tags and at least two kills – blue or green, any combination.) Use poster to provide visual. Release carnivores after allowing the omnivores at least 3-4 minutes to roam about.

Next, call over the veterinarian and disease. Go over what they need to do. Disease kills as many mammals as possible; the veterinarian saves as any many mammals as possible and tries to freeze rabies the entire simulation. Send disease after the 3-4 minute wait, but send the veterinarian after disease after only about a one-minute head start.

If you have elected to use other participants (Elements, Road Warrior, and/or Human) they should enter the simulation at this point. As the simulation progresses, it is suggested that the adult(s) present walk the boundaries to insure that the “animals” stay within the simulation area.

The simulation continues until time is up or the students stop participating, usually about 30 minutes. Be sure to leave 20-25 minutes for processing and summarizing the activity and resetting the materials.

When time is up, sound the horn twice. ROLL SHOULD BE TAKEN IN THE FIELD BEFORE YOU RETURN TO THE MAIN AREA. Sometimes children do not hear the horn or are very far from the starting point. WE DON’T WANT TO LEAVE A CHILD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIMULATION AREA ALONE.

Explain: (Analyze)

Processing and Data Keeping:

1. Determine how many of each type of animal survived. For each group, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores ask the following series of questions to determine survival.

A. If you did not get 2 waters during the simulation, please sit down. You died of dehydration.

B. If you did not get your two required foods, please sit down. You died of starvation.

C. If you do not have one of your original plastic colored life cards left, please sit down. You died of predation, disease, or natural disaster.

Record on white board again for comparison and visual. Calculate percentages. Encourage students to calculate or estimate percentages from fractions (4 of 20 herbivores survived, what percentage of herbivores

survived?)

2. Give time for student discourse to discuss some of the following:

● What strategies did you use to “survive”?

● What happened as various predators entered the simulation?

● What would happen if there were more carnivores? herbivores? omnivores?

● How does this activity help explain the deer population problems in our area?

● How do human activities influence animal populations in our area?

● Discuss adaptations of each group, the physical characteristics which allowed them to be successful.

3 .Have a representative from each group of organisms share their group’s major points of discussion.

Reassemble materials to reset for the next session

Collect folded pinnies and have students help reset the life rings – add new food and water paper strips and redistribute the plastic cards so each life ring has the correct number.

Evaluate: (Reflection)

Answer reflection questions (in the journal if applicable):

1. Calculate the survival rates and percentages of each energy role.

2. Explain in detail the strategies you used to acquire your basic needs and avoid being eaten during the simulation. Include both successful and unsuccessful strategies in your answer.

3. Give examples of adaptations or strategies the animals use to help them obtain their basic needs. (Example: a rabbit stands still to avoid being noticed by a predator.)

4. Predict what you think would happen if the simulation was changed so that there were many more carnivores and omnivores than herbivores. Provide specific examples from what you experienced to support your answer.

Additional Teacher Notes and Reminders

Before you begin the lesson check your equipment and review the simulation area boundaries and safety information.

Safety

❖ Never conduct activity alone; always have support in case of injuries/unexpected situations

❖ Take attendance/count participants pre and post activity

❖ Do not leave the simulation area until all students are accounted for

❖ Use adults/chaperones/student assistants to actively monitor student activity throughout simulation area. They may be assigned a role with the understanding that the activity is for the 6th grade students. Consider limiting the number of life tags predators are allowed to collect so as to minimize skewing the results.

❖ Determine ending time and demonstrate ending signal

Agenda

1. Engage - Discuss the nature of a simulation, the food web, and predator/prey relationships.

2. Explain the roles, requirements for survival and rules

3. Walk to the simulation area and review boundaries and safety information

4. Explore – conduct the field experience

5. Evaluate - discuss survival strategies, survival rates, and adaptations of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores

6. Walk back to the classroom

7. Reassemble the simulation for the next use.

8. Reflection – journal entry

Materials

1. Life rings: plastic and cardboard tags attached to shower curtain rings.

❖ Herbivore: four green hard plastic cards, one blue cardboard tag, and one pink cardboard tag attached to a shower curtain ring.

❖ Omnivore: Three blue hard plastic cards, one blue cardboard tag, and one pink cardboard tag attached to a shower curtain ring.

❖ Carnivore: Two red hard plastic cards and one blue cardboard tag attached to a shower curtain ring.

2. Food and water stations.

Three food stations (red board, one foot square)

Three water stations (blue board, one foot square)

3. Pinnies:

Herbivore: Green

Omnivore: Blue

Carnivore: Red

4. Other participants:

❖ Disease: Black pinnie and an empty shower curtain ring

❖ Veterinarian: White pinnie, a shower curtain ring with green, blue, and red plastic tags, and a squirt bottle full of water.

❖ Elements: (Used for large groups – 25 or more) yellow pinnie and empty shower curtain ring.

❖ Road Warrior: (useful for children who have difficulty moving) yellow pinnie, whistle, and empty shower curtain ring.

❖ Human: (Useful for VERY large groups of 40 or more—be advised the human can have a devastating effect upon the animals) yellow pinnie, an empty shower curtain ring, and whistle.

Review of Role Summary:

Herbivore: The herbivores are told that survival is dependent on finding food and water stations. Each water station is coded with a different hole- punch and the herbivore simply punches his/her blank blue water card at two different stations. He/she must also find two food stations to mark his/her blank pink food card. He/she may visit each station only once during the simulation. Survival is also dependent on not becoming food for carnivore or omnivore, or dying at the hands of the elements or disease.

Omnivore: Omnivores have to find two water stations and must have two different symbols on their blue water card. They must find one food station to mark his/her blank pink food card, and they also must take food by “eating” one or more herbivores (represent meat). Upon catching a herbivore by tagging, the omnivore takes one of the herbivore life tags and puts it on his/her shower ring and moves on. Survival is dependent on not becoming food for carnivores or dying at the hands of the elements or disease.

Carnivore: Carnivores have a blue water card and have to find two water stations. They must have two different marks on their water card. They must eat food by catching either 2 herbivores or 2 omnivores or 1 of each. Their survival depends also on their not dying at the hands of the elements or disease.

Disease: The disease (rabies) tags and recovers life tags from any animal in the simulation. He/she has no predator to fear but must look out for the

“doctor” who can squirt him or her with water and give him/her a “sit-down penalty”.

Elements: The elements (hurricanes, lightning, snow, etc.) tag and recover life tags from any animal in the simulation. They have no predator to fear.

Veterinarian: The doctor should have spare life tags, which can be given to animals that have lost their last life tags. The doctor also tries to help animals by taking disease and elements out of the simulation for “sit-down penalties” of 5 minutes. The doctor only needs to get close enough to the disease and elements to squirt them with the water from the squirt bottle.

Participants with Disabilities

Road Warrior: The road warrior should have a loud bicycle-type squeeze horn to be used when he/she sees animals running on dangerous roads which have been designated as walking areas only. The road warrior may take a life tag from an animal (road kill).

Human: The final threat to animals’ survival is human. When human enters the simulation (five to ten minutes before its conclusion), word is passed among the animals for human only has to see the animal to win a life tag. He blows a whistle to indicate his sighting of an animal. Diseases and elements may continue to take lives as well. If killed by human, the animal must give up his life tag immediately and then may attempt to escape. Human’s whims may make this impossible. Human may simply send the animal out of the simulation to more dramatically demonstrate his power.

Predator Prey Cheat Sheet

Role Carnivore Omnivore Herbivore Veterinarian Rabies Elements/Natural Disaster

Pinnie

Color

Red Pinnie Blue Pinnie Green Pinnie White Pinnie Black Pinnie

Yellow Pinnie

Life Ring

Set up

2 red plastic cards, 1 blue paper card

3 blue plastic cards, 1 blue paper card, 1

pink paper card

4 green plastic cards, 1 blue paper card, 1

pink paper card

Many green, blue and red

plastic

Empty ring Empty ring

Number of stude

nts

10% Double the number of carnivores

Everyone that is left

Water bottle to spray rabies

Tag green and blue Tag green Tag no one and avoid all

Require-

ments for

survival

Two water, at least one red life card

Two water, one berry, at least one blue

life card

Two water, two berry

· Have parents and teachers stand by the boundaries.

· Make sure you show all the boundaries.

· Demonstrate how the simulation will end with the horn.

· Have students redo the rings for the next group.