NatureMapping Activities

Purpose:
Help students understand that an appropriate habitat will supply all an organism needs to survive.
Learn to sketch habitats.

Write the word HABITAT on the board and write down students' definitions of a habitat.
Habitat: The arrangement of food, water, shelter or cover and space suitable to animal's needs. It is the "life range" which must include food and water, as well as cover to escape, over-winter, rear young, and even to play. Source: Project WILD, 1992 Council for Environmental Education.
Brainstorm with students, "What do people need to say alive and reproduce?" List their responses in categories: food, water, shelter, and space. If words like sunshine, pizza, house, nature, mall, clothes, and parents are listed, you would group sunshine and pizza under "food". Clothes and house would be grouped as "shelter". Nature and the mall would be grouped as "space", and parents would be in the "family" category.
Now ask what do house spiders need to survive and reproduce? A cougar?
Discuss changing needs when the seasons change. Could a wetland creature survive in the desert?
Have everyone write their definition of habitat and compare them.
Hand out 2 copies of the Habitat Map (pdf) to the students.
Students will draw the habitat covering the same area where they conducted the Treasure Hunt (Activity #7)
With the aerial map of Lake Tahoe on an overhead, discuss the different habitats shown. Would a beetle or a jay use only one tree in the forest or move around the entire forest? The same type of habitats can cover large areas.
Use the Chase Middle School Habitat Map on an overhead for students to see the different habitats within and around school grounds.
With the 2nd copy of the Habitat Map, ask students to draw the habitats around your school from a bird’s eye view. Students will save their maps for Activity #10.

Definitions

Habitat - the type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs (Example: "A marine habitat")

NatureMapping Activities

9. Meeting Needs

Definitions