Teacher name: Catherine Hawkins
Grades taught: K-6 (Speech/language)
School name: Conway Elementary 160 Main St. Conway,NH 03818
School telephone number: 603 447-3369 School fax number:
Teacher e-mail: N/A
School web site information:
Subject matter: Science-nature-birds

Key questions to be explored:
1. What is camouflage?
2. How is camouflage different from hiding?
3. How does this affect the predator-prey relationship?
4. Who studies predator-prey relationships? (Biologists, naturalists, environmentalists, botanists, conservationists, etc.}

Outcomes
Students will learn the benefits of camouflage and how it differs from hiding through various activities. They will be able to explain how hiding and camouflage affect the predator-prey relationship and why this is an important area of study, They will become familiar with the different kinds of people who do this kind of work.

Activities
The first activity demonstrates the concept of camouflage. It is a relay race called "Birds and Worms," You will need a large area for running, preferably outdoors. You will also need about 60 small pieces of yarn of varying colors (blue, green, red, tan, white,etc.) for the "worms" and at least 6 students for the "birds." Depending on your playing surface, have more pieces of yarn that are close to that color (green and tan if playing on a spotty grassy area, etc.), fewer pieces of the easy to spot colors. Scatter the worms at the end of the relay area; line up two rows of birds at the opposite end. Have some type of marker for the starting line and explain how the birds have to "fly" down as fast as they can (If students are very young, have them flap their arms,), pick up a worm, fly back and touch the next bird waiting in line. Have each student get two worms. After determining the fastest team, gather everyone in a big circle and look at the different colors everyone picked. (This could be graphed for part of a math lesson.} Ask questions to try to determine why one color was chosen the most or the least. Explain at the end that there were actually more worms of the least chosen colors, (hopefully!) but because of the camouflage effect, they were harder to see and therefore "protected." See if students can give any examples of camouflage in nature that would parallel this activity.

A follow-up activity to show the difference between camouflage and hiding is a Hide and Seek game called "Predator and Prey". Find a good spot outside that has established boundaries and good hiding places (e.g. playground, grove of trees, etc.). Gather students around and go over the rules, demonstrating with other adults or older students, if possible. Explain that one student will be the predator (Hopefully, "predator" and "prey" have been discussed in other lessons. Have the student pick what kind of predator he would like to be.) All other students will be prey. The predator will stand in a fairly central spot, next to the teacher, close his eyes and count slowly to 15 as the prey run and hide. He then opens his eyes and if he can spot any prey, he says "I see Johnny behind the big rock or I see Susie behind the pine tree." If he can't tell who the person is, he must describe what he sees, such as, "I see an orange shirt behind the slide." Whomever is seen must come in and is considered caught. The predator closes his eyes again and counts to 10 while the others run to a different hiding spot. If there are any students left after this, the predator hides his eyes one last time and counts to 5, while the remaining prey run and hide again. The last one to be caught or the one who was never found gets to be the next predator.

After the game, discuss the difference between the camouflage of the worms in the relay game and the hiding of the prey in the hide and seek game. Make a list of different animals and determine if they protect themselves from predators by camouflage or hiding (or some other means.) Ask students what they would choose for a defense if they were some type of prey. The people who study predator-prey relationships will be discussed.

How will this lesson be reviewed and evaluated?
This lesson will be reviewed by having the students do a report or project on the subject, choosing their own animal. This could be written, oral or in a game format, which the student would have to explain to the class. They could also think of a skit, explaining the role of the characters (e.g. "Here is a biologist looking for a snowshoe hare,..."). Students could work individually or in small groups. How much information they bring to their projects will be an indication of how successful the activities were. A field trip to the New Hampshire Science Center at Squam Lake would be an excellent follow-up activity, for any age.

Other comments:
If it is not possible to plan a class field trip to the Science Center, just go yourself. You will get lots of ideas from their many wonderful displays, plus they have a peat natural history library, with great resource guides for teachers. They also give talks in schools.