LAND WALKSThere are two walks, one optional, in this exploration. The first walk requires simply that students be primarily descriptive, and the second, that they participate in a sampling procedure.The second walk can be done at any time, or not done at all.
Summary: This activity takes students on their first field trip, and encourages them to develop their powers of observation and expression. They investigate various forms of life on their land, and the habitats that accomodate life.
Preparation/classroom management: Pick a piece of land, close to the school if possible, that has interesting and appealing natural features. You may need to go further afield, to a park or an open lot. You may want to postpone working with field guides much in the first trip in order to encourage their observation and sketching.
It is possible to do the second half of this walk in small teams (mammals, insects, birds, lichen, moss and fungi; plants). if possible, you might want to let the teams read their pages beforehand and do some web research, indicated by a web sign on their pages.
You might want to review the data template before beginning. A printed version would be useful. Data can then be entered in the Survey section of the Webbed Neighborhood.
Materials (desirable but not required):
hand lens or magnifying glass;
loupes are ideal
binoculars
butterfly net
field guides to animal tracks, birds, insects, plants, lichens,
moss and fungi
tweezers or forceps
jars or small vials
rulers
Activity
Steps:
Have each student take a quiet position on the piece of land.
Ask them to sit in absolute silence for 5 minutes before proceeding
through their guided exploration.
What Can We
Hear?
Ask your students: Can
you describe the sounds? List all of the sounds you can distinguish.
Give yourself some time, as your ear needs to get "tuned"
to various frequencies. Do you hear both wild animal and human
sounds? What are they? What might be the reason for the sound?
Natural sounds usually serve as communication, alerting other
members of their species to danger, for example, or announcing
their territory. Most human sounds that carry a distance are
the side-effect of machinery. The movement of cars often provides
a steady drone against which many of our lives proceeds.)
If you are using teams, divide into teams at this point. Team possibilities include mammals, insects, birds, lichen, moss and fungi; plants.
What Can We See?
Ask students to look around to see if you can determine anything large moving. Many animals are very shy. Often when you go into the field to look for them you don't see any. Explain that: professional woods observers sit quietly for hours in order to catch sights like the red fox making its "rounds." You'll need to sit quietly for some time to give the animals that you've scared off a chance to return. Remember some animals and plants are poisonous so you'll need to know what to look out for in your particular area. People who study animals look for clues and evidence as well as the animal itself.
MAMMALS: Do you see any mammals? If so, describe them and make a sketch in your journal. Be sure to notice coloration, shape and size of distinguishing features. Identify if possible. What is it, or they doing?
Signs of mammal's presence: Mammals are some of the most difficult animals to spot. Look for evidence of their presence. Are there any holes in the ground? in logs? Do you see any scat (animal feces)? Mammologists (people who study mammals) can identify mammals by the shape and size of their scat and can also tell what role they play in the food web by examining the scat looking for food remains! Any leavings from food (eaten pine cones, owl pellets, piles of seeds, buried acorns, trash)? signs of movement (trails such as beaten down grass, roads or bikeways)? Do you see any animal tracks? If you find one, look for others.
Encourage students to look for homes such as burrows, dens in hollow logs and caverns. Homes and the residents themselves are often camouflaged. Animals put brush around a home, or plants trees, or change their own coloring so they will not be detected.
If you see mammals, or signs of mammals, consider how your land provides a habitat for them, giving them food, water and shelter.
BIRDS: Ask students to look up in the sky. Are there birds flying overhead or moving in the trees? What shape are their wings? What colors are they? Notice the bill or beak, if possible. How do they hold their tails? Sketch and describe what you see.
Where are they located - on the ground, in a tree, in shrubs? How are they behaving? Identify the birds if possible. Binoculars and pictures in field guides are good tools to help you with this. As you are making other observations you may see other birds come into the area. Stop what you're doing and watch them carefully.
Signs of birds: Do you see any nests? seed shells? droppings? broken eggs?
If you see birds, or signs of birds, consider how your land provides a habitat for them, giving them food, water and shelter.
INSECTS: Bend down close to the ground and wait. Turn over rocks or leaf litter. Using your hand lens or magnifying glass, look for small insects under leaves on trees, or in the tips of plants. Use your garden trowel and forceps to carefully pick up the animals and put them in the jar so you can make careful sketches. When you are finished sketching be sure to return the insects to the habitat in which you found it. What shape and size are they? What color? How many legs do they have? Are there pinchers or wings? Sketch and describe what you see.
Use your ruler to measure the size of the animals or evidence you find, the diameter of any holes or nests, and the wing span of insects. Be sure to record these measurements with your descriptions and drawings in your journal. Depending on the time of the year, and if you're very observant, you many find eggs or larvae of different insects. If you're lucky enough to find these be sure to describe and sketch them. Are there any insects flying in the area? Try to catch them in your net and put them in the jar to make sketches and write descriptions. Return them when you are finished. If you have butterflies, you can carefully hold them by both wings to transfer to the jar.
If you see insects, or signs of insects, consider how your land provides a habitat for them, giving them food, water and shelter.
TREES, SHRUBS AND GRASSES: What kind of plants grow on your piece of land? Are there many different kinds or mostly only one kind? How many layers of vegetation are there? How high is the highest cover? What is the dominant vegetation? Are there young trees of the same species as the dominant cover? Other species?
Go up closely to the plants and observe them. In what stage in their life cycle would they seem to be? Where can insects live on plants? Observe places such as bark, stem, seed pods and seeds, the top as well as the underside of leaves. Who is eating the plants?
How healthy is the vegetation on the walk? Is there moisture on the leaves? Signs of drying? Is there signs of insect infestation, dropping needles or leaves, crown kill? Sketch and describe what you see.
Consider how the trees, shrubs and grasses on your land provide habitats for the mammals, birds and insects, giving them food, shelter and even some water.
LICHENS, MOSS AND FUNGI: What can you see growing on rocks and trees and on the ground in the woods? If you look carefully at the branches and bark of trees, or at their base, and if you look carefully on rocks or at the ground in shaded areas, you can probably find some sign of lichen, moss or fungi.
Lichens, Moss and Fungi existed in the world before there were true plants. These are sensitive to changes in the environment, and so environmental students like to look for them and notice their type and condition.
Lichen are often the first larger organism to appear on a rock. Sometimes one kind of lichen grows on top of or beside another. Moss can start right on the top of lichens. Fungi grow where there is organic material to decompose, in old dead wood, for example.
Trouble signs:
In areas where the air is healthy there are many different kinds of lichens and mosses. Lichen in a healthy countryside can be leafy, bushy, or "thready", and not simply flat and crusty. Lichen and moss in cities can be simply tiny colored spots on stone or sidewalks. When moss and lichen are injured by toxic air, they turn white at the edges or tips, and stop growing.
Sketch and describe what you see.
Consider how the trees, shrubs and grasses on your land provide habitats for the mammals, birds and insects, giving them food, shelter and even some water.
This activity was written with the inspiration of Chuck Roth, and the help of Dick Walton and Linda Raymond, a former teacher in Bloomington, Indiana.
Extensions:
Web of life (back
in class): Have each team or
student make a card for each species they found . Everyone displays
a card before them. Each kid in a circle gets a chance to call
out their species and tosses their yarn to another species they
feel will eat them WHILE holding on the yarn themselves. If some
cannot find anyone to eat them, have the class consider why this
might be so? Are they poisonous? Is there predator missing?
Adopt a tree
or bush: Ask each student
to adopt a tree or bush or some other part of the natural environment.
It will be their job to follow their large plant throughout the
year and record its changes.
Learn bird/frog/insect calls and flight patterns: If teams of students learn one call and/or one flight pattern, a field trip will be enriched by their contribution.
Create a Camouflaged Critter.
WALK TWO: Make a Sampling Transect
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