TITLE: "OH DEER!" AUTHOR: Patty Dalton, 5th Grade Teacher, Reno, Nevada GRADE LEVEL: 4-6, Science-Environmental Education OVERVIEW: This lesson in environmental education is necessary to show children the interdependence of animal life with their environment. PURPOSE: With our planet in the serious condition it exists today, children need to see the plan of nature so that they can understand the need to preserve and protect our resources. OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to: 1) identify and describe food, water and shelter as three essential components of habitat. 2) describe the importance of good habitat for animals. 3) define "limiting factors" and give examples. 4) recognize that some fluctuations in wildlife populations are natural as ecological systems undergo a constant change. RESOURCES/MATERIALS: Project Wild, Western Regional Environmental Education Council ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES: --Describe the fundamental necessities of animals: food, water, shelter and space in a suitable arrangement. --Demonstrate to students that without these essential components, animals cannot survive. Do this by playing "Oh Deer!" --Have students count off in fours, with all those sharing the same number gathering in certain corners of the classroom. (This game is best played outdoors but may be adapted to inside play.) --Mark off two parallel lines on the playground or floor that are about ten to twenty yards apart. --Have all the "ones" behind one line and all the rest behind the other line. The "ones" will become the deer. --The other students will become the components of habitat: food, water, shelter and space. --When a deer is looking for food, it should clamp its hands over its stomach. When it's looking for water, it puts its hands over its mouth. When it is looking for shelter, it holds its hands together over its head. When it is looking for space, it should hold its arms straight out at its sides. A deer can choose to look for any of these needs during each round, but it cannot change what it is looking for in that round. It can change in the next round if it survives. --The students who are the components of habitat may choose which they will be at the beginning of each round. They will depict that component in the same manner as the deer. --The game starts with all players lined up on their respective lines and with their backs to the students at the other side. The teacher asks all students to pick their sign. When they are ready, count: "One...two...three." At the count of three, the students turn and face each other showing their signs. --The deer run to the habitat component they are looking for and take that component back to the deer side of the line. (This represents the deer's successfully meeting its needs and reproducing as a result.) Any deer that fails to find the component it was seeking dies and becomes part of the habitat, joining the students on the habitat side. --The teacher keeps track of the number of deer at the beginning and ending of each round. Continue play for fifteen rounds. --At the end of fifteen rounds discuss the activity; encouraging the students to talk about what they experienced and saw. The herd grows in the beginning, then some must die as the habitat is depleted. This fluctation is a natural process unless factors which limit population become excessive. --Discuss what excessive limiting factors are: drought, fires, deforestation, uncontrolled hunting. --The teacher should make a line graph of the number of deer alive at the end of each round to show that it is naturally cyclical. --Have the students summarize what they have learned from the activity. --If the game is played again, be sure to include the limiting factors. For example, if their is a drought no student on the habitat side can choose water as their symbol. --A new graph can be made to show the difference made in the natural cycles. TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: When students have played the "Oh Deer" game it helps them to understand the interdependence of animals on their environment. Hopefully, they will see that as human beings they can be a part of the limiting factors which effect our environment. With this knowledge they may become more responsible in taking care of our ecological systems.
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