Waterways tag

Waterways tag

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
Your teacher will explain how this game works. This game mostly focuses on feeding relationships, shelter relationships, and human interventions. In this version the relationships explored are between eels and other elements of their environment. The feeding relationships are predator/prey relationships and do not include plants, because eels are carnivorous.
 
How to play
  • All players must stay within the designated area.
  • The eels (or other predators) try to tag the prey. When tagged the prey go to the timeout area and count to 20 before rejoining the game.
  • Prey cannot be tagged while they are in a hoop. Only two prey at a time can be in a hoop and they can only stay there for five seconds.
Scenario 1

Normal healthy stream
        5 eels
        rest of class – prey
        5 hoops
 
Questions

What do you notice? Was there enough food for the eels? Was there enough food and shelter for the prey?
 
Scenario 2

The cows have been crossing the stream to get to the milking shed, and have destroyed all the safe places and food sources for the prey.
        5 eels
        rest of class – prey
        1 hoop
 
Questions

What do you notice about the population of the prey? Are they able to maintain their numbers? What effect will this eventually have on the eels?
 
 
 
Scenario 3

The local children have been on an eel-catching expedition. Only 1 eel is left.
        1 eel
        rest of class – prey
        5 hoops
 
Questions

What do you notice about the population of prey? What problems might this cause them? What do you think might be the impact to the stream community?
 
Scenario 4

Some new eels have arrived to live in the stream
        10 eels
        rest of class – prey
        5 hoops
 
Questions

What do you notice about the population of prey? What problem will this cause the eels?
 
Scenario 5

A disease has wiped out all the water snails
        4 young eels [predator A]
        1 old eel [predator B]
        rest of class – koura
        5 hoops
 
Questions

What do you notice about the population of eels? What problems will this cause for the eels in the future?
 
Scenario 6

The stream has had its banks bricked and tidied. There is nowhere for the eels to hide.
        4 young eels [predator A]
        5 kingfishers [predator B]
        rest of class – mayfly larvae
        0 hoops
 
Questions

What do you notice about the population of eels? What effect might this have on the kingfishers? What effect might there be on the mayflies?
Task administration: 
Description
This game mostly focuses on feeding relationships, shelter relationships, and human interventions. In this version the relationships explored are between eels and other elements of their environment. The feeding relationships are predator/prey relationships and do not include plants, because eels are carnivorous.

Equipment:

  • Scenarios – on cards below.
  • A clearly defined area (part of a netball court works well, or cones on a grassed area) represents a stream/river.
  • A timeout area e.g., beside the defined area represents the removal of the species from the food chain.
  • Hoops represent food and shelter.
  • Coloured bands identify different predators/prey.

NOTE: Make sure students understand what each area/ piece of equipment represents. Cut out and laminate scenarios so they can be reused. (The scenarios are in the student task.)

Pre-game preparation
Ensure that students are familiar with the relationships that will be explored, by attending to the following questions:
What do eels eat?

  • Young eels eat small invertebrates such as insect larvae, worms, and water snails.
  • Big eels can eat small fish, koura, ducklings, and rats.

What eats eels?

  • Baby eels are eaten by some birds such as kingfishers and shags.
  • Big eels are eaten by people.

Where do eels live?

  • They hide under logs and boulders or under riverbanks.

Discuss with students the purpose of the game.
Encourage them to think about not just the immediate impacts, but how this causes a ripple effect on everything living there, including plants.

What you do

  • Establish the stream boundaries, and where the timeout area is.
  • Present the first scenario to the students, select the predators, and distribute the hoops within the "stream".
  • Play the game (refer to How to play).
  • Allow enough time for a pattern to emerge (two or three minutes).
  • Ask students to stop where they are. Ask questions about how hard it was to find food/ to escape from the eels. Focus questioning on both the prey and predators. (Questioning helps students think about what the tag game is modelling.)
  • Repeat with another scenario.

NOTE 1: It is better to try out a few scenarios and play the game several times, rather than just playing once. Repetition helps reinforce the big idea, that any change within a habitat affects everything living there.
NOTE 2: This is quite a boisterous game, so it is important to establish safety rules.  It can be included as a warm up game for physical education. Some adaptations may be necessary to include children with physical disabilities.

How to play

  • All players must stay within the designated area.
  • The eels (or other predators) try to tag the prey. When tagged the prey go to the timeout area and count to 20 before rejoining the game.
  • Prey cannot be tagged while they are in a hoop. Only two prey at a time can be in a hoop and they can only stay there for five seconds.

Variations
This game can be adapted to focus on a single animal in any environment, e.g., crabs at the beach, snails in the garden, and Hector's dolphin in the ocean. It can be used to examine the interactions of all the elements in any environment, e.g., swan plant community, sand dunes, compost bin. For further ideas, go to Working with students: Next Steps.

Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
Science, Investigating in science, Living World
Key Competencies: 
Participating and contributing, Thinking
Keywords: 
interdependence, waterways, rivers, streams, models, game
Description of task: 
Task: Students play a tag game that simulates the relationships between elements within a waterway, and discuss how different scenarios impact on the populations living there. Assessment focus: changes within a habitat affect everything living there.
Curriculum Links: 
Science capabilities
The capabilities focus is brought about by the conversations you have and the questions you ask.
 
Capability: Gather and interpret data
This resource provides opportunities to discuss: gather data using models for investigations. how the information collected is reflective of reality.
 
 
Capability: Engage with Science
This resource provides opportunities to discuss: how the information collected is reflective of reality.
Science capabilities: 
Gather and interpret data
Making Better Sense: 
Food Chains
Answers/responses: 
  Impacts modelled by the game Impacts not modelled
Scenario 1
 
  • There is enough food for the eels.
  • There is enough shelter/food that all the prey do not get eaten.
  • The prey have enough time to reproduce (return to the game).
  • The habitat can sustain the populations.

Note: The scenario played out will depend on the number and speed of the "prey" and the size of the area. Some adjustments may need to be made (for example change the number of eels or hoops) so the habitat is self-sustaining.

  
Scenario 2

There is not enough food and shelter for the prey.
The numbers of prey drop. For a short time there is a lot for the predators to eat, but then there is not enough.

 Eels also lose their safe places so become vulnerable to being caught.
Scenario 3
  • The prey population increases.
  • They may run out of food.
  • Things that eat eels will not have enough to eat.
  • Other things that eat the same food as the prey may also run out of food.
  • There will eventually be a change to the amount of plant life in the waterway.
Scenario 4
The prey population decreases.
• There is not enough food for the eels
  
Scenario 5
  • The old eel has plenty to eat but the young ones don't.
  • The young eels will die out or move where there is enough food.
• There will be no eels that reach adulthood.
• No more baby eels will be produced.
• The baby eels might be able to find something else to eat.
• Lack of snails could affect the water quality.
Scenario 6
  • They are easily caught by the kingfishers.
  • Once they have eaten the eels they will need to find other food or starve.
  • There may be more mayflies.
• Animals that feed on mayflies may have extra food.
• The mayfly population may eventually drop if there is not enough food for the increased numbers.

This resource was trialled in several classrooms by researchers and classroom teachers involved in Waterways projects.

Teaching and learning: 

Key competencies relevant to this resource

  • Participating & contributing
  • Thinking

Exploring scientific models
This game is a model. One of the Nature of Science substrands, Investigating in science, includes investigating models. The Science Capabilities website includes interpreting models in Interpret representations. 

Teacher feedback on this game

  • Provided a different sort of opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understandings;
  • Provided an opportunity to transfer knowledge and understandings to a new situation.
Diagnostic and formative information: 

To be able to make wise decisions about our environment we need to:

  • know what lives in a particular habitat;
  • know what their requirements are; and
  • be able to predict the impact of any changes in conditions on the whole habitat.
We found that students, even those that had been involved in Waterways projects, had varying degrees of knowledge about what lived in or around a waterway, and were more inclined to identify animals than plants. Some could identify immediate interactions such as feeding relationships. Fewer were able to take a big picture view and think about the total habitat as an interlinking system. Some who could did not have specific knowledge of the parts to make correct inferences. Both knowledge about the individual "parts" of an ecosystem and knowing how the different parts interact are important aspects for environmental decision-making.   To read more go to Inter-relationships research.
Next steps: 

Follow up discussion questions

  • What does this game model?
  • What have you learnt?
  • What are some of the things the game does not show so well?
  • What did you notice about the changing populations during different scenarios? Did every change made have an equal impact?
  • What would happen if eels only ate one sort of food, for example, water snails? Is a species more or less likely to survive if it has more than one food source? Why do you think this?

Extension activities

  • Ask students to suggest: other scenarios to try out, including those caused by natural events such as flood and drought; other waterways animals and plants you could explore through this game, .e.g., mayflies, algae.
  • Once students understand prey/predator relationships, more elements such as plants could be included in the scenarios to model the impacts further along the food chain.
  • Explore both short term and long term impacts of a change. For example, if the eels are getting lots to eat, they are in good condition for breeding, leading to a possible population explosion, which could lead to a food shortage. If eels are plentiful, it may also lead to an increase in animals that eat eels (such as more people coming to fish).
Vocabulary
Go to Science vocabulary for help with developing students' scientific vocabulary.

The following resources were developed as part of a classroom research project about students' progressions in thinking about interdependence.

Inter-relationships research
The following print resources explore interdependence in a different context.

  • Ministry of Education (2002). Building Science Concepts Book 21, Life between the tides. Wellington: Learning Media.
  • Ministry of Education (2002). Building Science Concepts Book 22, Tidal communities. Wellington: Learning Media.
  • Ministry of Education (2001).  Making better sense of the living world. Wellington: Learning Media. Topics are:   Earthworms  -   Mosses and ferns   -  Aquarium and pond life  -   Microbiology
  • Ministry of Education (2006). Connected 3. The Secret Life of Estuaries. Wellington: Learning Media. This article explores food web ideas with a particular emphasis on the role of organisms that break down detritus.(rotting plant and animal matter).
Regional councils supply resources, including people resources that are relevant to local areas. Many of them provide online resources. Contact your local regional council.