TITLE: WETLANDS/MIGRATION
AUTHOR: Stephen T. Ferguson; Williams/Cone, Topsham ME
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 2-6
OVERVIEW:
Coastal wetlands are an important factor to insure the success of bird
migration. Ponds, lakes and marshes provide food and shelter for
traveling birds . Without the wetlands birds would not have the energy to
make the trek from areas as far south as Panama in the case of the Belted
Kingfisher. At the time of the European settlement of the United States
there were 215 million acres of wetlands. Today there are less than 100
million. Besides providing habitats for waterfowl, wetlands help relieve
flooding, filter pollutants and are an integral part of the biosphere.
Through increased education of their importance and beauty children will
become responsible stewards of the remaining 100 million acres of
wetlands.
PURPOSE: To increase awareness for the need to protect our nation's
wetlands.
OBJECTIVES:
1. Students will be able to operationally define migration.
2. Students will be able to visualize the dependence of wetlands for
Migrating birds.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS: chalk or a stick.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. This activity will be best accomplished on a sandy section of the
playground or a parking lot. The teacher will draw a large sized
hopscotch course. The course can be drawn on the pavement with chalk
or drawn on the sand/dirt with a stick The squares should be
approximately 3'x3'. The hopscotch course should contain 10 squares.
2. Have the students line up at the beginning of the course. Tell the
students that they are birds starting there journey northward. Tell the
students that each of the squares represents a wetland between Florida
and Maine ( it will be more dramatic using a migration path which
includes your state. Specific migration patterns and bird species can be
obtained from a bird field guide.). Students are then challenged to
migrate northward on the course. They do not have to step on every
square, however they must not go outside the course.
3. All students should be successful in the first migration. Now, tell
the students you are a developer. You will destroy 2 wetland areas in
order to build condos. Put an "X" on two of the squares. Tell students to
make the migration once again. The students may not set foot on the
destroyed wetlands. If they do, they die and thus may not participate in
any further migrations. After all students have run through destroy two
more and repeat the procedure. Repeat this until all students fail to
make the migration. Try to "X" off the squares in such a way that not all
are destroyed but are so far apart students can not make the jump. This
will help with the debriefing.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
At the end of the activity ask students the following questions:
1. Explain why some birds died earlier than others?
2. Why did the rest of the birds die?
3. Explain how this game represents migration.
4. Why did the birds die even though some wetlands remained at the end of
the game?
5. Why is it important to save wetlands in all states?
6. How do migrating birds depend on wetlands during migration?
EXTENSION:
Have students investigate any developments in their community that
threaten wetlands.
Have students use field guides to investigate birds which migrate to
and from their community.
Footnote:
1. William A. Niering, Wetlands, ( New York, 1988), p. 19. S
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