My lesson focused on what animals need to survive, carrying capacity and predator/prey relationships. I began the lesson by asking the students what wildlife is and to give examples of the wildlife that we could see in Brewster. I then asked the students what animals need to survive and asked them what would happen if these variables are changed. To demonstrate this, we played a population dynamics game. I had 3 squares of different sizes on the ground and then the students would try and all fit in the squares. I then gave each group the same amount of food. This demonstrated size of a habitat and amount of food as limiting factors. We practiced graphing skills by graphing the population sizes in relation to habitat size. After that, I talked predator and prey dynamics as a way to introduce the effect that has on the landscape. I had the students play a game outside where they got to be wolves, deer and vegetation. I changed the number of deer and wolves each round so they could see what happens. After the game we discussed the implications of having a top predator in an ecosystem and gave an overview on trophic cascades.
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In “Landscapes: the Land We Share,” students took a critical look at their hometown of Brewster, Washington in three core activities. Beginning with a recap of the 5 senses, we jumped into the first activity: “What YOUR Landscape Looks Like,” a reflection & creation session that let students journal about who and what lives in a landscape, as well as why, where, and how we observe landscapes. After their reflection, table teams re-created their own Brewster landscapes by drawing them out on posters and presenting them to the class. As a classroom, we discussed what themes we saw in all of our drawn landscapes, specified what elements were crafted by humankind, and came to the conclusion that everything we experience in life happens on some kind of landscape. The second activity, “Brewster From Above,” transformed the class into an observation station by which we could look into the past through photographs. Using the format of a Seek-and-Find puzzle, each team received two google satellite images: one from summer 2015, the other from winter 2004. For about 10-15 minutes, teams compared the differences between the two, made guesses as to why the differences appeared, and came to conclusions about land management practices over time.
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