Climate Change Challenge*
Lesson Information
Age: Grades 4-9
Duration: 30 to 45 minutes
Group Size: One group of 15 to 45 students
Materials: An indoor or outdoor area, such as a gym
or playing field, that is large enough for students to run;
a flip chart or chalkboard; writing materials; Bristol board;
paper fastener; spinning pointer (plastic clock hand)
Summary: Students role-play polar bears and habitat
components to demonstrate the impacts of climate change on
the Arctic Ocean ecosystem.
Learning Objectives:
Students will:
- understand that all living things depend on healthy habitat,
including food, water, shelter, and space;
- recognize that fluctuations in wildlife populations are
natural, because habitats undergo constant change and that
nature is never in a state of complete equilibrium; and
- identify ways in which climate change may threaten the
delicate balance of nature.
Background
Habitat includes food, water, shelter, and space – all
arranged just right to sustain living things. If any of these
components are missing, damaged, or altered, so is their life-giving
value. Wildlife populations naturally fluctuate because of
supporting and limiting factors, which keep them within predictable
ranges. This "balance of nature" is more like a
see-saw than a state of equilibrium, and species' numbers
constantly waver in response to an abundance or lack of habitat.
In this dynamic activity, students will experience how everything
in nature is interrelated; how suitable habitat sustains living
things; how wild populations wax and wane depending on the
availability of food, water, shelter, and space; and how climate
change could throw this delicate equilibrium off balance.
The far-reaching impacts of climate change may be felt nowhere
greater than in Canada's Arctic, one of the fastest-warming
regions on Earth. With winter temperatures rising by 5 to
10°C in this century, northern habitats could experience
the greatest climatic impacts of all: increasing snowfall;
eroding shorelines; melting permafrost; and warmer, deeper
oceans. The most severe impact may be the shrinking of the
Arctic sea ice. This frozen platform is integral to the lives
of a wide range of species, such as polar bears, ringed seals,
and walruses, that feed, travel, and breed on its vast expanses.
Algae living under the sea ice are the foundation of an ocean
food chain that supports plankton, copepods, fish, sea birds,
and mammals. The average thickness of the sea ice has shrunk
by 40 per cent in the past three decades, jeopardizing the
future of this web of life.
The polar bear in particular faces the loss of the frozen
habitat it needs to hunt ringed seals, its principal prey.
As the climate gets warmer, the sea ice could break up several
weeks earlier than it now does in spring, reducing the time
in which bears can fatten up prior to summer, when they usually
fast. Unseasonable warmth could also cause the snow dens of
ringed seals to collapse, reducing their pup's chances of
survival and depriving polar bears of food. With lower body
weight, mother bears will have more difficulty nursing their
cubs. Biologists have already noticed a sharp decline in the
birth rates of some populations and suspect that the physical
condition of the animals is worsening..
Procedure
- Begin by introducing the principal habitat components
— food, water, shelter, and space — and explain
that all living things must meet their needs in all four
categories. Tell your students they are about to take part
in an activity about northern habitat and how it is threatened
by climate change. Describe the risks facing the polar bear
to illustrate how its needs may no longer be met because
of climate change in the Arctic.
- Write the heading "Climate Change and Habitat Impacts
in the Arctic" on a flip chart or blackboard. List
some of the positive and negative effects of climate change
on food, water, shelter, and space. For example:
- more abundant berries, grasses, and other plant foods
thanks to rising temperatures and longer growing seasons;
- less prey due to the early melting of sea ice, the
collapse of ringed seal snow dens, and a shorter hunting
season;
- more denning shelter due to increasing snow fall;
- less shelter because of collapsing snow dens, shoreline
erosion, and melting permafrost;
- more drinking water because of increasing precipitation;
and
- less space and reduced mobility due to thinner, less
extensive sea ice and coastal erosion.
- Make a "climate roulette wheel" out of a round
piece of Bristol board divided six ways and a spinning pointer
held in the centre with a paper fastener. In each section,
write a different habitat impact resulting from climate
change (based on the six examples above).
- Take your class to a grassy outdoor area or a large,
open indoor space. Ask the students to count off from one
to five. All the "ones" go to one area, all the
"twos," "threes," "fours,"
and "fives" to another. Mark two parallel lines
on the ground or floor 10 to 20 metres apart. Have the "ones"
line up behind one line, the rest of the students behind
the other.
- Assign each group a role. "ones" represent polar
bears, "twos" represent food, "threes"
represent water, "fours" represent shelter and
"fives" represent space. Explain that, together,
they represent polar bears and habitat components, all arranged
just right; and that polar bears will need to find food,
water, shelter, and space in order to survive. When looking
for food, they will clamp their hands over their stomachs.
When looking for water, they will put their hands over their
mouths. When looking for shelter, they will hold their hands
together over their heads. When looking for space, they
will hold their arms out to the side. Polar bears may pursue
any one of their needs during each round of the activity.
They cannot, however, change what they are seeking during
that round. If they survive, they can try to meet another
need in the following round.
- "Twos," "threes," "fours,"
and "fives" remain in their assigned roles throughout
the first round, depicting habitat components in the same
way that polar bears show what they are looking for —
that is, hands clamped over stomachs to represent food,
hands over mouths to represent water, and so on.
- The game starts with all players lined up on their respective
lines (polar bears on one side, habitat components on the
other) and with their backs to the students on the other
line. Begin the first round by asking all students to make
their signs, each polar bear deciding what it is looking
for, each habitat component assuming its role. Give the
students a moment to get their hands in place — over
stomachs, mouths, heads, or out to the side.
- At the count of three, groups of polar bears and habitat
components turn to face each other, all holding their signs.
When polar bears see the habitat components they need, they
are to run towards them. Each polar bear holds the sign
of what it is seeking until it reaches a habitat component
person with the same sign. If it reaches its required habitat
component, it takes the "food," "water,"
"shelter," or "space" back behind the
polar bear line. This action represents the polar bear's
successfully meeting its needs and reproducing as a result.
Any polar bear that fails to find food, water, shelter,
or space dies and becomes a habitat component. If more than
one polar bear reaches a habitat component, only the one
that gets there first survives. Habitat components remain
in place on their line until a polar bear needs them.
- In the second round, climate change begins to show its
effects. Demonstrate how the "climate roulette wheel"
works. Spin the pointer and wait for it to stop on a habitat
impact. If, for example, it lands on "more abundant
berries, grasses, and other plant foods thanks to rising
temperatures and longer growing seasons," students
who represented food in round one should remain in that
role. Those who represented water, shelter, or space may
assume the role of food if they wish. If the pointer lands
on "less prey due to the early melting of sea ice,
the collapse of ringed seal snow dens, and a shorter hunting
season," students who represented food in round one
may now change roles. Those who represented water, shelter,
or space should remain in those roles. Let the students
practise responding to the climate roulette wheel before
beginning round two.
- Continue the game for about 15 rounds, spinning the roulette
wheel so that only students representing habitat components
can see it before making their appropriate signs. Keep track
of how many polar bears there are at the beginning of the
game and at the end of each round. Keep the pace brisk,
and the students will enjoy it.
- At the end of 15 rounds, gather the students together
to discuss the activity. Encourage them to talk about what
they experienced. For instance, polar bears may have started
by finding more than enough of their habitat components.
Their population may have expanded over several rounds until
its habitat was depleted by climate change. At that point,
many polar bears may have died of starvation, thirst, lack
of shelter, or inadequate space.
- Use a flip chart or chalkboard to post the data recorded
during the activity. The number of animals at the start
of the game and at the end of each round represents the
polar bear population over a series of 15 years. The beginning
of the game is year one. Each round is an additional year.
For example:
- Ask the students to summarize some of the things they
have learned from the activity. What does wildlife need
to survive? What are some of the habitat impacts of climate
change? How do they affect the survival of caribou and other
species? Are wildlife populations static or do they fluctuate
as part of the overall "balance of nature"? How
might climate change affect this balance?
Evaluation
- Identify the four main habitat components.
- 2. Define "habitat impacts of climate change."
Give four examples.
*This activity is based, in part, on "Oh Deer!"
from the Project WILD Activity Guide.
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WILD