Lesson Two

WHO LIVES IN THE OAK COMMUNITIES?

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVE:  Students learn about the importance of oaks as a part of a community and their importance to their local environment.  

TIME REQUIRED:  Survey once a month.  Several class periods to complete computer exercises.

BACKGROUND:  The student notes for this activity provide examples of residents that rely on the oaks for their survival.

ADVANCED PREPARATION:  To help students learn to the parts of an oak community bring in examples for them to examine.  I always show a log that is stuffed with acorns compiled by an acorn woodpecker.   

ANTICIPATORY SET:  Ask your students what kinds of animals and plants that they might have encountered in the oaks.  Show them the evidence such as a log with acorns.  Make a list on the board.

ACTIVITY:  Split students into four groups.  Assign one group to leaves, one group to branches, one group to bark and one group to the woodland floor.  Using the site, www.naturegrid.org.uk/woodland/index.html each group will explore their assigned section on the Woodland Explorer program.  They take notes on the various creatures living at their level of the woodland.  Each student in the group shares their information about their organism with the class.  Students present in the order of the layers explaining their layers importance to the woodland. 

PROCEDURE:   

1. Have students create a survey table so that they can count inhabitants and other important material that affects the oaks. (Seedlings, Plant Material, Animal Signs, Birds, Insects, Other Animals)
2. Take students around the school and let them record numbers with tally marks under categories.
3. Use plant, weed, bird and mammal field guides to identify individuals.

CLOSURE:  Put survey on the computer using Excel and create a map of the school by hand including trees.  Record sightings each month.

EXTENSION:   Students convert their hand drawn map to Paint.