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Forest Ecology HOBCAW BARONY THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION Lesson Description After students have explored the exhibits in the Hobcaw Barony Discovery Center, they will be led in completing a simple dichotomous key of a variety of animals in the forest. Students will then participate in a sorting game where they will answer questions based on characteristics until they figure out what animal they are. Once students are comfortable with how animals are different, the behaviors of animals in winter will be discussed. Students will be given animal cards where they will act out how their particular animal survives in winter. If there’s time, a short nature hike through the longleaf pine forest will allow the students to immerse themselves in wildlife habitat as they look for animals hanging around in the winter. SC State Standards covered (2nd Grade) Standards Standard 2-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry, including the processes, skills, and mathematical thinking necessary to conduct a simple scientific investigation. Standard 2-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of organisms. (Life Science) Indicators 2-1.3 Represent and communicate simple data and explanations through drawings, tables, pictographs, bar graphs, and oral and written language. 2-1.5 Use appropriate safety procedures when conducting investigations. 2-2.1 Recall the basic needs of animals (including air, water, food, and shelter) for energy, growth, and protection. 2-2.2 Classify animals (including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and insects) according to their physical characteristics. 2-2.4 Summarize the interdependence between animals and plants as sources of food and shelter. 2-2.5 Illustrate the various life cycles of animals (including birth and the stages of development). Forest Ecology HOBCAW BARONY THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION SC State Standards covered (4th Grade) Standards Standard 4-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry, including the processes, skills, and mathematical thinking necessary to conduct a simple scientific investigation. Standard 4-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics and patterns of behavior that allow organisms to survive in their own distinct environments. (Life Science) Indicators 4-1.7 Use appropriate safety procedures when conducting investigations. 4-2.1 Classify organisms into major groups (including plants or animals, flowering or nonflowering plants, and vertebrates [fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals] or invertebrates) according to their physical characteristics. 4-2.2 Explain how the characteristics of distinct environments (including swamps, rivers and streams, tropical rain forests, deserts, and the polar regions) influence the variety of organisms in each. 4-2.3 Explain how humans and other animals use their senses and sensory organs to detect signals from the environment and how their behaviors are influenced by these signals. 4-2.5 Explain how an organism’s patterns of behavior are related to its environment (including the kinds and the number of other organisms present, the availability of food and other resources, and the physical characteristics of the environment). 4-2.6 Explain how organisms cause changes in their environment. Focus Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. How are animals different? How do you use a dichotomous key? What do all animals need to survive? Do animals change survival techniques with changing seasons? How do scientists group animals? Forest Ecology HOBCAW BARONY THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION Teachers need to provide: Pencils Dichotomous key sheets o See Attachment at end o One copy per student o Look for the Instructor will provide: Animal Cutouts Animal “Act Out” cards Lesson Plan Part One: Introduction and Dichotomous Key Upon entry, students will observe and fill in a brief sheet about animal behavior in winter. The instructor will lead a discussion concerning how animals are different. The term dichotomous key will be introduced, and a general dichotomous key will be completed by the students with the instructor’s help. Part Two: Grouping animals Each student will then receive a cutout of a particular animal and be encouraged to think about their animal’s behavior during different times of the year and “become” that animal. The instructor will read a series of questions while the students determine which animal they have through the descriptions given just as scientists group animals by their appearance and behavior. Once the students understand how animals are different, the discussion will move to how animals behave when it’s wintertime (migration, hibernations, etc.). Part Three: Acting Out Activity Students will work in pairs or groups of three with another guessing game. Each group will be assigned a group of animals to “Act Out”. They will have a few moments to prepare and then will show the rest of the class how their animal survives the winter while the other groups guess which animal it is and how it survives. Part Four: Wintertime Wildlife Walk If time, the students will go for a short nature hike lead by the instructor to look for animals and animal sign. Reflection: Choose your favorite animal that lives where it’s wintertime. How would you survive the winter? Draw a picture of yourself and tell what you would do. -ORHumans are animals too! What do you do differently in wintertime to stay healthy and warm? Forest Ecology HOBCAW BARONY THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION Teacher Preparation: Hibernation is a time when animals ‘sleep’ through cold weather. This sleep is not like human sleep where loud noises can wake you up. With true hibernation, the animal can be moved around or touched and not know it. [Don’t you do this, though. Some animals only go into a torpor or temporary sleep time and can wake up quickly. Like BEARS.] We are going to use the word 'sleep' sometimes but hibernation is different from regular sleep. With normal sleep, the animal moves a little, has an active brain, and can wake up very quickly. With true hibernation, the animal appears dead. There is no movement and it takes a long time for it to wake up enough to even walk around. Hibernation is the way that animals adapt to the climate and land around them. Animals must be able to live through extreme cold or they’ll die. Animals hibernate—or deep sleep—to escape that cold. They also do this due to the lack of food supply during the winter. . When an animal begins to hibernate, its body temperature drops very low so that it almost matches the temperature outside. Human temperature is normally about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. If you were a hibernator and it was 30 degrees outside, your body temperature would drop from 98.6 down to about 30-40 degrees. The animal’s heartbeat and breathing slow down, too. This is when that stored fat that the animal packed on in the fall comes in to play. Cold-blooded hibernators begin hibernation when the cold weather causes their body temperatures to drop. Coldblooded animals do not have a body temperature like humans do. Our temperature stays about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit all the time. Cold-blooded animal temperatures stay the same as the air temperature around them. If it is 50 degrees outside, the lizard is around 50 degrees. If it is 110 outside, then they are about 110, too. Since we already said that hibernators adapt to their environments, you can see why these animals would try to escape extreme cold AND heat by hibernating. Hibernation is sleeping through cold, and estivation is sleeping through heat. Cold-blooded hibernators will wake up when the air outside warms or cools enough for them to be comfortable. *Excerpted from http://library.thinkquest.org Migration is a fascinating aspect of animal ecology, and it inspires us whether we are studying salmon migrating thousands of miles back to their spawning grounds, huge flocks of sandhill cranes migrating across the northern skies, or caribou crossing rivers in the fall. Animals that live in habitats that are difficult to survive in year round, must find a way to cope with the difficult time of year. Other than hibernation, migration is another option for animals that can move across long distances. They survive by leaving the area for part of the year or part of their life, and move to habitats that are more hospitable. The most common reason to migrate is to take advantage of food, shelter, and water that vary with seasons, or life stage. The availability of food and water can change throughout the year. For instance, the lack of insects and leaves in the winter means there is less food to eat. Some environments have a rainy and a dry season that are very different. Temperatures change between the seasons, some areas getting very cold or very hot which can be hard on some species. Sometimes it is not about getting food but about staying safe. Deep snow may make animals easier to catch by predators, or animals may go to special breeding grounds to keep their young safe when they are especially vulnerable. *Excerpted from www.nps.gov Forest Ecology HOBCAW BARONY THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION FOREST ECOLOGY VOCABULARY LIST Forest: A dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract Ecosystem: A community of living and non-living things that work together Habitat: an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism Longleaf pine: see Background page Classification: the assignment of organisms to groups within a system of categories distinguished by structure, origin, etc. Dichotomous key: A dichotomous key is a tool that allows the user to determine the identity of items in the natural world, such as trees, wildflowers, mammals, reptiles, rocks, and fish Migration: the relatively long-distance movement of individuals, usually on a seasonal basis Hibernation: a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and/or lower metabolic rate ___________________ Vascular plants: Any of various plants, such as the ferns and seed-bearing plants, in which the phloem transports sugar and the xylem transports water and salts Endemic (native; indigenous): natural to or characteristic of a specific locality or region Threatened species: any species (including animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future Endangered species: a population of organisms which is facing a high risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters Conservation easement: a voluntary agreement that allows the landowner to limit the type or amount of development on their property while retaining private ownership of the land Conservation Reserve Program: voluntary program available to agricultural producers to help them use environmentally sensitive land for conservation benefits Forest Ecology HOBCAW BARONY THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION Background: America’s Longleaf Pine Forest Longleaf Values The majority of the forests present on Hobcaw Barony are longleaf pine dominated with mixed pine/hardwood and bottomland hardwood forest sprinkled throughout. Longleaf pine forests were once incredibly vast. From the Atlantic coastal plain of southeastern Virginia to the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas, these forests encompassed more than 90 million acres of the North American landscape, and represented an extraordinary wealth and diversity of cultural, ecological and socio-economic values. The tree itself, longleaf pine, literally sustained the growth of America with an abundant source of timber and naval stores. It built homes, bridges, ships and railroads and symbolized the bounty of natural resources that made the nation prosperous. Although longleaf pine remains a highly valuable commodity in markets today, the value of these forests runs far deeper than economics and trees. Cultural Longleaf pines in the systems they support are woven into the cultural fabric of America. The open, fragrant, “piney woods” are as much a part of southern culture and folklore as cornbread. Their beauty, diversity and humble intimacies have been the inspiration for some of the country’s most honored writers, artists and naturalists. Long before European colonization, generations of Native Americans sustained themselves with the natural and spiritual riches these lands offered – lands that they revered through their customs and rituals. Throughout time, nature lovers, sportsmen, photographers and outdoor enthusiasts have enjoyed an endless array of recreational and aesthetic pursuits tied to the abundance and splendor of these systems. Ecological Today’s remnants of the longleaf pine forests are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems outside of the tropics. More than 140 species of vascular plants can be found in a 1,000 m2 area, with as many as 40 to 50 different plants species in one square meter. Nearly 900 endemic plant species – species found nowhere else – are found in these systems across the Southeast U.S. One hundred and seventy of the 290 reptiles and amphibians occurring in the Southeast are found in longleaf pine ecosystems, with 30 reptiles and amphibians that are specialists to the longleaf system. Coupled with the extensive decline of this forest type, 29 species associated with longleaf are federally listed as threatened or endangered. Economic Today, longleaf pine forests provide landowners and managers with a variety of economic opportunities. Private sector markets include returns from high value solid wood products, quality pine straw, and higher real estate values. Additionally, private and public funds are available for conservation easements and ecosystem services including conservation banking payment or mitigation and premiums for wildlife hunting leases. From the public sector, landowners also receive preference on many cost-share and landowner incentive programs including the Conservation Reserve Program. Response to Climate Change Though much additional scientific study needs to be done to understand current and future effects due to climate change, current information suggests that longleaf pine is the clear “winner” among all the southeastern pines (including loblolly, shortleaf and slash) by a wide margin in terms of response to climate change. This is consistent with the fact that longleaf and other favored species are more resistant to drought and high temperatures. Longleaf also offers other ecological benefits, as compared to other tree species, such as reduced risk from wildfires, most insects and diseases, and hurricane and wind-related events/storms. *Excerpted from www.americaslongleaf.org