TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS The BioCircle Race Thank you for participating in Bring Back the WildTM. Now it’s time to have fun and celebrate nature and biodiversity with a school-­‐wide activity for all! Overview Teach your students about biodiversity with The BioCircle Race. This fun, engaging activity will get kids thinking about the relationships of living and non-­‐living organisms while uncovering some fascinating nature facts along the way. Classrooms should individually make their way to the gymnasium or playground throughout the specified day when all BioCircle Race components will be in place. Teachers should allow their classrooms 30 minutes to complete the activity from start to finish. There are two game levels to choose from: junior and intermediate. Directions 1. In the game area, ensure the nine cardboard mats (featuring living and non-­‐living forest organisms) are randomly placed in a circle. Alternatively, scatter the mats randomly throughout to encourage more physical activity. 2. Discuss with your students how FOOD CHAINS work. Explain that in a terrestrial ecosystem, there are many species of plants, animals, fungi, and microbes that co-­‐exist, and their primary source of energy comes from THE SUN. Energy passes from one species to another through consumption. Some are specialized for consuming plants (herbivores) while others are dedicated to consuming animals (carnivores), and some are capable of consuming both plants and animals (omnivores), like humans. 3. Explain that in the Web of Life, energy moves from one organism to the next and so on, until what’s left over at the end returns to the beginning again. Explain that the web of life is very complex, but for the purposes of this game we are showing how a basic FOOD CHAIN works. 4. Once your students have a basic understanding of how the FOOD CHAIN works, divide your classroom into nine teams of two or three. 5. Using the CLUE CARDS, choose which level to play – junior (yellow star) or intermediate (green star). Supply each team with one of the nine CLUE CARDS (each clue card corresponds with one mat). Students must use the clues to determine which component in the FOOD CHAIN they represent. 1
6. Once they have figured out what/who they are, they must run over and sit in front of their respective mats. If the mats are scattered around gym, they must find their mat and return it to the game area, forming a circle. 7. When all nine teams are seated, the teacher will have one student from each team read his/her clue card out loud. On the card are clues to find out which mat comes before them, and which comes after. 8. Everyone must work together as quickly as possible to link the chain in the right order in a circle. (Fun Tip: time your class and record the results, and have other classes do the same. See which class can complete the circle the fastest.) The correct BioCircle is shown on page 4. 9. Once they’ve completed the food chain, discuss how this chain works -­‐ Trees use energy from the sun through photosynthesis -­‐ Moths eat the leaves from the tree -­‐ Spiders trap the moths and eat them -­‐ Salamanders eat the spiders -­‐ Snakes eat the salamanders -­‐ Weasels eat the snakes -­‐ Vultures eat the weasels when they die -­‐ When vultures die, they are decomposed by fungi & microbes -­‐ The fungi & microbes turn the dead vultures into nutrients. -­‐ The nutrients help the trees to grow Game Components 1. 9 BioCircle Cardboard Floor Mats 2. 2 sets of 9 BioCircle Clue Cards a. Junior and Intermediate Sets
Clue Card 2
Optional Post-­‐Game Discussion (Jr. /Intermed) The following questions can be discussed right after the game or in the classroom, as time permits. These questions will highlight the effect of human disruptions to the food chain, and reinforce the importance of Bring Back the Wild in helping protect animals and their habitats. 1. In this food chain, what would be negatively affected by pesticide use? -­‐ Insecticides will kill many moths and spiders, removing food for the Salamander. -­‐ This also affects the rest of the chain because any moths or spiders that survive the spraying will accumulate insecticides in their bodies. These toxic insects will be eaten by the salamanders, with the toxins becoming magnified as they travel up the food chain from one consumer to the next. -­‐ In the end, the vulture will have the highest concentration of insecticides amongst the animals in this food chain. This will result in shell-­‐thinning and make it impossible for the vulture to brood its eggs (they will break under the weight of the parent). -­‐ Therefore, pesticides would weaken the entire food chain! More about pesticides -­‐ Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill unwanted organisms. -­‐ Insecticides are for insect pests, herbicides are for troublesome plants, fungicides are for problematic fungi, and rodenticides are for rats and other small mammals. -­‐ A popular pesticide is DDT (dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane): a chemical that was designed to kill unwanted insects like disease carrying mosquitoes. -­‐ DDT is like many other pesticides, it can kill insects other than the ones that it is intended for and its residues are harmful to animals further up the food chain. This is because small amounts of pesticides become more concentrated as they get passed from one organism in a food chain to another. This phenomenon is called biomagnification. 2. What would happen if you cut down trees in this forest habitat? -­‐ Moths would lose one of their primary food sources (i.e. tree leaves), which could cause a population crash throughout the food chain. -­‐ Without trees, moths, spiders, salamanders, snakes, weasels and vultures wouldn’t have trees or logs to use for as shelter, making them vulnerable to being eaten/or environmental elements (sun, wind, rain). -­‐ There would also be a significant loss of nutrients from the soil through erosion – this nutrient-­‐poor soil would make it difficult for many species of trees to re-­‐populate the area. -­‐ Destruction of the forest will result in a less diverse environment where few forest species can survive, meaning that there will be less biodiversity in the landscape. After the discussion, explain how this shows how this is truly a web of life and everything is interconnected. One change from one piece affects everything else in the chain – including humans who are connected through the web of life. Explain how it’s important for us to take care of the Earth and that’s why we’re raising funds to protect habitats for animals. 3
BioCircle Answer Key Nutrients Tree Fungi & Microbes Moth Vulture Spider Salamander Weasel Snake 4