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PREDATOR PREY

Predator Prey

Curricular

Connection

3.0 LIFE SCIENCE: The students will use the scientific skills and processes to explain the dynamic nature

of living things, their interactions, and the results from the interactions that occur over time.

E. Flow of Matter and Energy (Grade 5)

1. Recognize and explain that some source of energy is needed for all organisms to grow and survive.

a. Identify the sun as the primary source of energy for all living organisms.

Plants use sunlight to make food

Plants and animals use food for energy and growth c. Provide examples that justify the statement "Most animals' food can be traced back to plants."

F. Ecology (Grade 4) 1.Explain ways that individuals and groups of organisms interact with each other and their environment. a. Identify and describe the interactions of organisms present in a habitat.

o Competition for space, food, and water o Beneficial interactions: nesting, pollination, seed dispersal, oysters filtering as in the

Chesapeake Bay, etc. o Roles within food chains and webs: scavengers, decomposers, producers, consumers.

Background

Predator-Prey Relationships

A predator is an organism that eats another organism. The prey is the organism which the predator eats.

Some examples of predator and prey are lion and zebra, bear and fish, and fox and rabbit. The words

"predator" and "prey" are almost always used to mean only animals that eat animals, but the same concept

also applies to plants: Bear and berry, rabbit and lettuce, grasshopper and leaf.

Predator and prey evolve together. The prey is part of the predator's environment, and the predator dies if it

does not get food, so it evolves whatever is necessary in order to eat the prey: speed, stealth, camouflage

(to hide while approaching the prey), a good sense of smell, sight, or hearing (to find the prey), immunity to

the prey's poison, poison (to kill the prey) the right kind of mouth parts or digestive system, etc. Likewise, the

predator is part of the prey's environment, and the prey dies if it is eaten by the predator, so it evolves

whatever is necessary to avoid being eaten: speed, camouflage (to hide from the predator), a good sense of

smell, sight, or hearing (to detect the predator), thorns, poison (to spray when approached or bitten), etc.

The fastest lions are able to catch food and eat, so they survive and reproduce, and gradually, faster lions

make up more and more of the population. The fastest zebras are able to escape the lions, so they survive

and reproduce, and gradually, faster zebras make up more and more of the population. An important thing to

realize is that as both organisms become faster to adapt to their environments, their relationship remains the

same: because they are both getting faster, neither gets faster in relation to the other. This is true in all

predator-prey relationships.

Another example of predator-prey evolution is that of the Galapagos tortoise. Galapagos tortoises eat the

branches of the cactus plants that grow on the Galapagos Islands. On one of the islands, where long-necked

tortoises live, the branches are higher off the ground. On another island, where short-necked tortoises live,

the branches are lower down. The cactuses, the prey, may have evolved high branches so that the tortoises,

the predators, can't reach them. (Note, however, not just in this case but in any case of co-evolution and

evolution, that there is always more than one cause that forces an organism to adapt, and though it is likely

that the higher branches are to avoid the tortoises, it is also possible that it was a different cause, such as

the sun, the ocean, or a different organism.)

Source: http://necsi.edu/projects/evolution/co-evolution/pred-prey/co-evolution_predator.html

Materials/ Teacher Materials Student Materials

(1of each item per student)

http://necsi.edu/projects/evolution/darwin/beagle/Galapagos/darwin_beagle_galapagos.html

Resources

Promethean Board/ Pens

Predator Prey PowerPoint

Assorted Pinnies (colors)

Predator Prey Life Tags (including white punch card)

Disease, Natural Disaster, and Decomposer Tags

Electronic Whistle

Human Game Bag

Safety

Provide the students with safe methods of movement through the playing area, with special caution given to avoiding poison ivy, wild animals, and animal burrows.

Handle the materials properly with respect and safety in mind.

Make sure all the students have on appropriate footwear and are dressed properly for the weather.

The students are to remain the playing area at all times.

Identify and use appropriate shelter areas in the event of emergent inclement weather.

Enduring

Questions and

Focus

Question

Enduring Questions

What is an ecosystem and how does it support life?

What are the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) components of an ecosystem and how do they interact?

Focus Question

How do organisms interact with each other in a habitat?

Vocabulary

competition – the struggle among organisms for food, space, and other requirements for existence

producer – an organism that makes its own food

consumer – an organism that eats other organisms for food

scavenger – an organism, object, or person that scavenges, especially an animal that feeds on dead

organic matter

decomposer - an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic

material

biotic – with life (living things such as plants and animals)

abiotic – without life (non-living things such as rocks, water, etc.)

ecosystem – a complex set of relationships between living organisms and their environment

environment – the physical surroundings of an organism which includes the living (biotic) and nonliving

(abiotic) components

carnivore – organism that eats only meat

herbivore – organism that eats only plants

omnivore – organism that eats meat and plants

organism – a living thing

5 E Model Time

Frame Activity

Engage

45 minutes 1. Have the students line up outside the Roundhouse by their group letters.

2. Give colored pinnies out to herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, disease, natural

disasters, decomposer (parent chaperone if possible) and the human. (Approximately

half as many omnivores as herbivores and half as many carnivores as omnivores.

Assign elements, disease, and decomposer to children who have physical limitations.)

Color Codes

carnivores-red, omnivores-green, herbivores-yellow, human-orange, disease-purple,

natural disaster-blue, and decomposer-black

3. After passing out pinnies to all the students, have the students enter the top of the

Roundhouse and face the Promethean board seated on the floor.

4. Using the provided PowerPoint, Promethean board and pens, discuss energy flow,

trophic levels, photosynthesis and abiotic and biotic factors in an ecosystem.

5. Continuing with the PowerPoint, explain the rules that all the students must follow in

the predator/prey simulation game, depending on their role in the game.

6. Walk the students down to the predator/prey playing field, (Arboretum) and show the

students the boundaries they must remain within. Also, show the students Cedar Lodge

and explain to them this is where they go when they are out of lives or when they hear

the siren to end the game. Finally, spread the teachers and parent chaperones around

throughout the entire playing area to supervise the students.

7. Give colored tags to match the colors of the pinnies for herbivores, omnivores,

carnivores, disease, natural disasters, decomposer and the appropriate materials to the

human.

Explore

Explore

1 hour 15

minutes

1. Send the herbivores into playing area after making sure they understand all their

needs, rules, boundaries, and end of game signal. Also, send the decomposer to the

decomposition pit. (Cedar Lodge)

2. After five minutes, send in the omnivores making sure they understand all their needs,

rules, boundaries and end of game signal.

3. After three minutes, send in the carnivores making sure they understand all their

needs, rules, boundaries and end of game signal.

4. After three minutes send in disease and natural disasters.

5. Introduce the human into the game about twenty minutes before you want the game

to end. (The human should be escorted by a teacher or parent chaperone.)

6. To end the game, blow the siren and have all the teachers and parent chaperones do

a sweep of the entire playing field to ensure all the students return to Cedar Lodge.

‘

7. The home school teacher will line students up and do a head count before leaving the

(Continued)

playing field and returning to the Roundhouse.

8. Walk the students to the Roundhouse.

9. The Fairview teacher will complete the predator/prey lesson wrap-up in the top of the

Roundhouse.

Explain

15 minutes 1. At the end of the game, compare ratios of surviving individuals in each trophic level to

see if ecosystem food pyramid shape remains.

2. Discuss the effect of the entrance of the human into the game.

3. Summarize the relationship between the herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and producers, and how they interact in order to maintain the balance of nature.

Extend

10 minutes Allow time for oral feedback if possible. Relate to the white tail deer hunting activity by

humans as a necessity due to current lack of natural predators.

Evaluate

5 minutes Enduring Questions

What is an ecosystem and how does it support life?

What are the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) components of an ecosystem and how do they interact?

Focus Questions

How do organisms interact with each other in a habitat?

Cleaning Up

and Setting Up

for the Next

Teacher

Have the volunteers restore the life tags to the original rings so that the materials are ready for the next group.

Career Links

officer for the Department of Natural Resources

wildlife biologist

ecologist

park ranger

zoologist

marine biologist

wildlife rehabilitator

animal welfare advocate

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