Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge
Field Trip Booklet
Fourth, Fifth, & Sixth Grade
Name ______Teacher______
Arrival Time______Departure Time______
(Revised 2009)
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Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge
Golden Rules for your Spring Field Trip
PLEASE…
Take your trash with you! If you pack it in, pack it out!
Look, take pictures, and draw, but do not pick the flowers or other plants found on the refuge
Leave rocks, logs, bones and antlers where they are. They provide homes for wildlife!
Stay on the trails to get where you are going
Moving slowly and talking in low voices will help us see or hear more wildlife
Listen to your teacher and your guide: they will help make your trip as much fun as possible.
Remember that all school rules apply at Turnbull, too!
Classroom Activity
Scavenger Hunt
Use the clues to find each animal described
1. I am a very large bird of prey with golden brown feathers from head to toe. My keen eyesight and soaring wings help me to find my next meal over the mountains and plains. My hooked beak and razor sharp talons help me to catch it. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
2. I am a bald-headed bird with an appetite for rotting flesh. The dark feathers of my wings make a V-shaped silhouette as I soar high in the sky, searching for the dead and dying to be my next meal. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
3. White and graceful, I glide across the surface of Turnbull’s wetlands, propelled by my webbed feet. I eat aquatic plants, insects, and crustaceans that I find by dipping my head and long neck below the surface or digging with my feet in the pond bottom. My lady and I mate “until death do us part.” Who am I...?
Animal: Station #:
4. I am a clever predator, but don’t be fooled…I will also eat plants and even dead animals. I have a thick coat of fur that keeps me warm in the winter. One of my favorite activities is howling to my night-time friends. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
5. I may be a colorful bird, but I consider myself a “king” of fishing. I have a funny hairdo (crest) and wear a “belt” around my chest. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
6. I’m tiny, but I’m tough. I can carry many times my weight because I wear my skeleton on the outside and walk on 6 legs. My sisters and I live in a colony ruled by a queen. We each have a special job. Who are we…?
Animal: Station #:
7. I strut my stuff in the spring, sporting a green hood and white chest that the ladies go “ducky” for. My black bill is larger and more rounded than the bills of other ducks, but it helps me to strain more tasty morsels from the ponds where I live. People used to call me spoonbill because of my beak, but now they call me this…Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
8. I am a very wise-looking animal with two tufts on my head that might be mistaken for horns. I’ll eat almost anything from insects to porcupines to great blue herons. Whoooo am I…?
Animal: Station #:
9. I am a squatty animal with long, sharp claws and a painted-looking, triangular-shaped face. I am very good at digging in the ground where I catch small mammals to eat or make a nice den to sleep in. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
10. I am a large bird with long, skinny legs and a thick, sharp beak. I normally wade quietly and stand in the water where I am a sneaky hunter of fish, frogs, and aquatic insects. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
11. In the spring my beak turns bright blue and my cheeks, bright white. The ladies go crazy for this so I show off to them by drumming my beak on my chest and sticking my tail straight up in the air. Who am I…?
Animal: Station #:
12. I wear a black necklace and a red mustache, but my lady wears no red. We both enjoy a fine dinner of juicy beetle grubs plucked from a freshly-drilled hole in a dead tree, called a snag. Many forest animals admire us for providing shelters or places to nest after we drill our numerous holes. Who are we…?
Animal: Station #:
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Weather Report
Circle the picture that shows today’s weather at Turnbull.
Clear Partly cloudy Mostly cloudy Overcast
0-15% cloud cover 16-50% cloud cover 51-75% cloud cover 75-100% cloud cover
Fog or Haze Drizzle or Rain Snow Thunderstorms
Write today’s date. ______
Write the air temperature. ______
Circle the picture that shows today’s wind speed.
<1 mi/hr; 1-3 mi/hr; 4-12 mi/hr;
calm light breeze leaves, small twigs in motion
12-24 mi/hr; 24-38 mi/hr; 39 mi/hr;
small trees and branches sway larger trees and branches sway small branches broken off trees
Do you think animals are very active today? ______
How might the weather affect their activity? ______
______
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Aquatic Invertebrate Study
Exploring what lives in the waters of Turnbull NWR
In the space below, draw a cross-section of the pond we are studying
(imagine cutting the pond in half with a knife).
LABEL the MUDDY BOTTOM and the WATER COLUMN, and include any plants or animals you see around the pond.
AQUATICS STUDY
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Often scientists will notice something in nature and wonder, “Why does it grow that way?” or “Why do those critters live there and not here?” They just completed the first two steps of the scientific method: 1) making an observation and 2) asking a question about what was observed.
Next they will try to think of an answer to their question, one that explains what they noticed, “Those critters live there because they prefer the soft soil instead of the rocky gravel.” What they have done is completed step 3), developed a hypothesis, an explanation that can be tested.
Now the hypothesis must be tested! Scientists will 4) design an experiment that will test the explanation they have come up with to see if it is accurate or not. Perhaps the scientists will take our critter in question and place it in a terrarium where one half is filled with soil and the other is filled with gravel.
Lastly, 5) a conclusion is made, based on what happens with the experiment. If the critter stays on the side of the terrarium filled with soil instead of the side filled with gravel, you might conclude that the critter prefers soil over rock!
Now it’s your turn! Make a prediction (hypothesis) of whether you think you will find more macroinvertebrates in the water column or on the muddy bottom. Why?
There are more aquatic invertebrates in the______
because ______
______
Count the numbers of each kind of aquatic invertebrate and record where you found it in the correct column:
WATER COLUMN / MUDDY BOTTOMDAMSELFLY NYMPH
MAYFLY NYMPH
SCUD
WATER BOATMAN
BACK SWIMMER
SNAIL
DIVING BEETLE
DRAGONFLY NYMPH
MIDGE LARVA
MOSQUITO PUPA
WATER MITE
Did you find more aquatic invertebrates in the water column or muddy bottom?
Was your hypothesis correct?
Did any other groups come to the same conclusion as your group?
Do you think this pond is the same all the time? Why or why not?
Could this affect the data?
Pick four of your favorite aquatic invertebrates and draw one of each in the spaces below:
NAME: / NAME:NAME: / NAME:
The Habitat Trot
Provide one or two traits of each plant and a trait for the animals or how they use their habitat.
Habitat / Plants / Trait / Animal / Trait/ Habitat UseWetland / Cattail / Red-winged
Blackbird
Bulrush / Yellow- headed Blackbird
Duckweed / Mallard
Grassland / Idaho Fescue / Deer mouse
BluebunchWheatgrass / Meadowlark
Yarrow / Chipmunk
Forest / Ponderosa Pine / Pygmy Nuthatch
Snowberry / Black-capped Chickadee
Wood’s Rose / Coyote
Riparian / Quaking Aspen / Western Bluebird
Douglas Hawthorne / Black-billed Magpie
Red-osier Dogwood / White-tail Deer
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