Student Activities
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
Essential Question
What impact do natural, and human caused threats have on migratory animals?
Objective
Through active game-play simulating migration of various animal groups, students will be able to explore and identify the impacts of various natural and human caused threats to migration.
Extension objective: Students will investigate ways to mitigate human caused impacts on migration and create an action plan.
Background
Migration is frequently linked with birds moving seasonally in a north south pattern for breeding purposes, but migration in the animal world is complex, with groups of animals migrating east-west, in the oceans, in fresh water, on land, as well as combinations of migrations over and in all types of land and water forms. Equally, animals migrate for various reasons beyond breeding, such as for food or for better living conditions.Natural barriers to migration such as deserts, lakes, rivers, mountains and oceans exist and inflict losses on migratory populations. There are manmade barriers that migratory groups face, too, which often pose a far greater problem for the population of those migratory groups. Manmade barriers include loss of habitat through land development or fishing grounds, dams, roads, air travel, windmills, pollution and climate change.
Materials
- 3x5 index cards (white and colored)
- 8-24 Small traffic cones (or other means of marking distances)
- 2-10 cones marked with tape
- Long tape measure to mark distance (or pace out distances by steps)
Materials
Last updated: December 28, 2022