Prey-Predator Activity
PROCEDURE:
1. Line up the children single file. Distribute the head band pictures to the children as follows: prey(p), prey(p), prey(p), Predator (P); p,p,p,P ; p,p,p,P ; p,p,p,P ; etc. In this way every fourth child will receive a Predator picture, and all of the other children will receive a prey picture.
2. Point out that although today our predator is a hawk and our prey are squirrels, that there are many different combinations of predators and prey in nature. Give some examples of these other combinations. (Research Background Information.)
3. Have the children color the animal pictures for their headbands.
4. Distribute the strips of construction paper. Staple the animal pictures to the center of each strip.
5. Explain to the children that we are going to play a game that will show us how animals in the wild search for food.
6. Show the children the food tokens. Tell them that these represent the kind of food that the squirrels eat. Spread the tokens in the "food zone". (See diagram)
7. Ask the children to put the head bands around their heads. Staple the strips together so that the bands fit snuggly on their heads.
8. Ask all the children wearing squirrel headbands to stand in the "safety zone". Explain that they are very hungry. Ask them if they can see their food on the other side. What the squirrels must do is get three food tokens to fill them up and to survive. They can carry only one food token at a time and therefore they must make three complete trips before they can rest in the safety zone.
9. Ask the hawks to stand in the playing field. Explain that they are hungry too, and they don't eat the food tokens that the squirrels eat. As a matter of fact, they eat the squirrels! They need to tag at least two squirrels in order to survive. If tagged, the squirrels retreat to an area out of any playing zones.
10. The squirrels have some safe temporary shelters to avoid a hawk. Point out that these are represented by the X's on the playing field.
11. Tell the children that the search for food begins at the first signs of daylight.
12. Begin the game by stating, "one, two, three,... daylight"!
13. After a food searching period of five minutes, end the game by calling out "one, two, three,... night fall"!
14. Have each player count the amount of food he was able to find during the "day of play". Those who got their quota (either three food tokens, or two tagged squirrels) can consider themselves survivors.
15. Discuss with the children the meaning of the terms predator and prey. Have the children identify the food search differences for the squirrel and the hawk.
On another occasion the game can be played again, but with optional variations:
a. Different animal combinations of predator and prey
b. Using "freezing" (standing perfectly still) as a method of protection from the predator
c. Removing some of the temporary shelters to make survival more difficult
Personal Adaptation
I decided to conduct this activity with the two sections of Grade 8, (20 students in each section). Lesson 2 in their Environmental Education textbook, (Environmental Education, Grade 8, by R. Rajagopalan, pub. Oxford India), is titled ‘Ecosystem; Nature is in Balance’ and as a result we had studied and discussed endangered and endemic species, types of consumers, biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem and the energy flow pyramid. To compliment this chapter, I had already assigned each student an endangered species and asked them to take on the identity of that species and to report on its lifestyle, habitat, food, breeding, and the reasons it is threatened along with any conservation efforts.
This activity was thus a perfect opportunity for them to actively gain some empathy for their species and to gain a holistic understanding of the various concepts mentioned above. I prepared the ground (a small hockey field) and the food sticks before the class. Before we went outside, I asked the students to decide if their species was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore, if it is usually considered a prey, predator or both, and to share their usual diet with the entire class. I then chose the four/five species that were most clearly identified as predators (e.g. wolf, eagle, shark) to play this role in the first rounds of our game.
When we were all in our positions outside, I first explained the ‘habitat’ and asked them what the five circles might represent to their species. They responded quickly with answers like burrows, shade, trees, under-water and under and between rocks and corals!
Before we began, I asked them all to close their eyes for a few minutes and to visualize and ‘become’ their species and to prepare for their struggle for survival!
I will let excerpts from the students’ ten-minute ‘reflect, cool down and respond’ writings answer whether the game achieved its purpose or not, but first would like to state that there was a big change between the first round, when both prey and predator thought and acted individually and in the second when both realized the benefits of acting as a group without my having made any comments at all!
Students’ responses:
I realized that dying because of old age must be quite rare in the wild. You are more likely to be eaten or to starve!
On our way to get food, six of us were killed by lions. My wife and I managed to get food but some of the families lost their young. This is how our life is.
The more prey there are and the more you stay together, the more likely it is you will survive and at least get something to eat.
If you are weak or small, you are bound to be killed.
When I was a predator, I dodged around the prey making them confused and tense but even so catching them was not easy. I felt the frustration a bird must feel when their prey hides in a safe zone and I couldn’t eat them!
I felt really scared but safe at the beginning when I was in a larger group. I got lost and forgot where I was but the others helped me. I understood the meaning of ‘safety in numbers’ for the first time!
I realized that a predator needs not only speed but also intelligence to confuse the prey and get them in a place where they cannot escape.
As a predator I realized that I must focus on one prey because if you divide your attention between many, you may not get any food. It is very important for both to know their surroundings, their food source and their safe zones before they set out for food.
I realized how hard it is not only for a prey to stay alive but also for a predator to get its prey to stay alive!
I learnt that food is not going to be served on the table, knowing our hiding places is very important, speed plays a major role and that making a group effort is the key to survival, either as a prey or as a predator.
In the second game with new predators, I deliberately did not leave out enough food for all the prey to get the required two pieces. I watched this strongly affect a number of students when after dodging and escaping from their prey they discovered there was no food! When we checked at the end of the game, we learnt that nearly half the prey had died from starvation. This served as a powerful tool to impress upon students the effects of habitat destruction, how humans have upset the balance in nature, and how when the prey cannot get enough food and die it will soon lead to the extinction of the predator/carnivores since they are so much fewer in number!
Because a lot of the vegetation we live on is disappearing we now have to look in unfamiliar places for our food. This makes it easier for the predators to kill us, if we don’t starve!
Many prey die each day because of starvation but then predators die too because they have nothing to eat either!
We humans destroy a habitat very easily, but if were in the animal’s place, we would know how difficult it is to survive! Just because of one mistake there can be an imbalance in an environment that can lead to its destruction!
Due to the loss of habitat, the number of prey is going down. So there are chances of these species becoming extinct. Due to this even predators may starve.
I conducted the game alone without the assistance of any colleagues and found that with twenty students it was quite manageable.
Clearly, making the time for games such as this and using them as a teaching-learning method, allows the students to physically and emotionally empathize with the species/place or issue they are studying and to feel the fear, hunger, loss and excitement that may arise during the game. It also provides them with an experience that they will probably wish to share and, in the very act of sharing later with friends, other teachers or family members, will make them want to account, explain and thus absorb some of the more abstract concepts inherent in the game itself.