Contents
Activities:
Name That Track
– Students will learn about some of the unique characteristics and tracks of several streamside animals. Animal photos to print, track cards to print.
Trace A Track
– Students can create plaster casts of different types of animal tracks that they find outside in the wilderness.
Beaver Fever
– Students will learn about the importance of having food, water, and shelter.
Adaptation Adventure
– Students will learn about wildlife adaptations to different environments and will have to pay close attention to the smallest details. Click here for scavenger hunt lists.
A Beaver Pelt Tale
– Students will learn about some of the important physical adaptations of the beaver, as well as how Native Americans and Europeans had an impact on the beaver population. Click here for script.
Streamside Critters Animal Lab
Students will learn about some important physical adaptations of streamside critters, while also learning how to make key observations.
Click here for Station 1. Click here for Station 2. Click here for Station 3.
– Students research organisms in an aquatic food web, make a living food web by linking themselves with yarn, learning their organism’s role in the ecosystem.Quick Frozen Critters
– Students go through a simulation to understand predator/prey relationships, how both have adapted physically and behaviorally to survive.Create a Winter Pond
– Students draw a picture of a waterway and its inhabitants in winter based on information they learn.
Streamside Critters Resources included with bins:
These are a series of one to two page general information and fact sheets produced by the PA Game Commission. They are used to aid students in completing the 3 station animal lab and are also useful for independent projects prepared by students.
Streamside Critters Presenter Information Sheet
This is a guide intended for use by an instructor who is preparing to teach about signs of streamside critters. Topics discussed include muskrat middens, chewed nuts, scat topics, buck rubs and scrapes, and beaver chews.
Identification Guides
For use in the in class animal lab and field explorations. Included are various field guides to tracks and a guide to skull identification.
Plaster Tracks
This is a two page instruction sheet on how to make plaster casts of animal tracks. It includes helpful tips for casting in dry soils or in snow.