Sir and Madame Biologist

Do. . .

  • Choose two students (girl and boy) to be Sir and Madame Biologists- these students will record the numbers of cranes who survive . Have them make a prediction about how many cranes can survive in this wet meadow. Have the students make observations and record number of cranes.
  • Divide the rest of the students into crane groups of five. Have each team line up at on the border of the playing field (relay style).
  • Once in groups of five- Describe the rules of being a crane.
  1. They collect food: 1 piece of food at a time and take back to their family of cranes.
  2. Then the next person can go and get one piece of food.
  3. Sir and Madame Biologist will make observations to try and answer the following questions
    • How many types of food do the cranes collect?
    • What foods do the cranes seem to collect the most of?
    • What foods are most abundant?
    • Once the rules are explained start the collection by saying GO.
    • Have the biologists report on what they observed? Three types of food- red, white, blue. More white chips than other chips and they are clustered together in areas (like fields).

Explain. . .

  • The chips represented the following foods that cranes eat:
  • White chips are GRAIN worth 3 points (the most abundant in farmer's fields)
  • Red chips are SNAILS worth 5 points
  • Blue chips are FROGS worth 10 points
  • Have each team calculate their points.
  • In order for the team of cranes to survive they need to have 100 points. To do this have the biologists calculate the number of cranes surviving and then determine the carrying capacity of a wetland meadow

Discuss. . .

  • How many of the cranes survived?
  • What was the carry capacity for this crane population?
  • Was this what you predicted?
  • How was this game we played "Field Research"?