|
Continued from Pok-O Press
The class begins with the basics, explaining both ecology and the causes of winter. The snow cover provides the perfect “blackboard” on which to explain how the Earth’s tilt causes its seasons. Then, just as in other ecology classes, students are led from the Greek oikos, the word for house, to the concept of ecosystems. This highly metaphorical etymology often appeals to students.
Following up on his efforts to recast the Center’s Forest Ecology Class as Wilderness Ecology, Naturalist Tim O’Neill debuted the finalized version of our Winter Ecology Class during last week’s staff training session. Beginning last year, in a project originally led by predecessor Ashley Fetterman, he took the best exercises from the earlier version of the class, streamlined them, and added two more, ending up with a class that is simultaneously one of the most fun and most educational in our curriculum.
The class begins with the basics, explaining both ecology and the causes of winter. The snow cover provides the perfect “blackboard” on which to explain how the Earth’s tilt causes its seasons. Then, just as in other ecology classes, students are led from the Greek oikos, the word for house, to the concept of ecosystems. This highly metaphorical etymology often appeals to students.
The first activity provides an introduction to many of the difficulties animals face in winter as well as giving students a chance to run around and keep warm. The game, called Winter Survival, has the students searching for their basic survival needs while three volunteers act as the winter threats starvation, predators, and big freeze who will rob them of these needs. The first to gather enough of each of the basic resources survives winter. Along the way, all participants learn the great challenge that animals face amid the snow and ice.
Winter Survival often starts on a pristine, freshly fallen patch of snow, but afterwards one can tell certain goals of the game just by observing the footprints. Winter greatly facilitates tracking, and students have a chance to track each other in pairs in the newest edition of The Tracking Game. During this activity, students try to follow their partners’ footsteps, being specific and creative as to what their “prey” did between the start and finish line, and will use these same skills at any point later on in the class when someone discovers true animal tracks.
Other activities focus on strategies used by animals to combat the challenges of winter, such as Migration, where students pretend to be birds trying to find their way to warmer climes, and the most popular Wilderness Ecology activity, Camouflage. The latter includes a discussion on winter topics such as the color-changing fur of artic foxes and hares. Participants often appreciate that the last game takes places indoors, a cool-down/warm-up card-game continuing and expanding upon the adaptation theme from Camouflage.
While Wilderness Ecology is often paired with Pond Ecology, and thus limited to four learning activities, Winter Ecology utilizes an entire block to provide students with an understanding of many problems and solutions of the colder months. As with any of our science classes, we are able to coordinate our program with that of the visiting school to provide an appropriate learning experience for students of all ages.
|
