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Project Willow Lesson: Home Range & Carrying Capacity Materials:
Objectives: Students will demonstrate an understanding of home range and territory by determining their own home range and territory. Students will write about how their home range would change if the population local population increased ten times in only four years. Background: There are some people who live out their entire lives without venturing more than a few miles from the village or town from which they were born. All of their needs, including food, water, shelter, companionship, and space to raise a family, are met within a small area. Some of these people see no reason for traveling away from where they were born. Scientists call the area or range in which an animal lives out its life as the animal's "home range". Some animals require a very small home range. A shrew may live in an area no larger than a quarter acre. Everything it needs including food, a home, a mate, and space to raise its young is found there. In comparison, a grizzly bear may cover more than a hundred square miles in its lifetime to find all of the things it needs to survive. The Washoe, too had a home range. Everything they needed to survive could be found within their home range. With the arrival of white settlers, the available home range of the ancient Washoe was reduced, forcing them to either expand their existing home range, or modify their way of life to accommodate the changing environment around them. Washoe Home Range This lesson introduces students to the concept of home range by discussing the traditional home range of the Washoe. The activity explores how the ancient Washoe home range could support only a limited number of human beings and how, as these available lands were reduced in size as a result of white settlement, the traditional Washoe way of life was changed to adapt to this reduction. While the Washoe were able to survive by adapting to this change, the process resulted in a loss of some of their cultural heritage. The lesson closes by asking students to imagine how their home range might change if suddenly the population increased ten times over 4 years. How might this population increase effect the local natural environment, the schools, community services, traffic, etc.? Would their home range be so dramatically affected by this change, that they no longer enjoyed living in their home range? Before You Begin This Lesson:
Activity: 1. Begin by asking students to imagine what would happen if Douglas County was somehow cut off from all outside food supplies. No longer could food be trucked of flown in from distant locations. Would there be any food left in the markets, and if so, what kinds? 2. Ask if the Carson Valley could grow enough food fast enough to support the existing population. What would residents have to do in winter when food crops could not be grown? 3. Working as a class, or in small groups, generate a list of foods that are currently "harvested" from the local area. If Douglas County were cut off from the rest of the world, what products could still be grown or raised on the land? (Answers might include: dairy products, swine, beef, chickens, ducks, potatoes, carrots, onions, broccoli, along with fish, beef, lamb/sheep, garlic, etc.) 4. Introduce the concept of home range with your students. Explain that in a home range, an animal learns where the best sources of food and water can be found. They also discover the best escape routes, and where the best shelters are located. 5. Explain that the home range is divided into territories. In human terms, a person's home range is similar to the "neighborhood", while a person's territory would be analogous to their individual house. 6. Explain that animals defend territories against competing animals of the same species. Some animals mark their territories with scents from their bodies. If an animal trespasses into another animals territory, a fight may result. 7. Working in cooperative pairs, have students quickly brainstorm different local animals, and what their home range and territory might consist of. For example, a student might think about a jackrabbit. Its home range would be an area of sagebrush from which it could gather food, water and shelter. Its' territory might simply be a rock outcrop or a large "clump" of sagebrush. 8. Pass out Activity Sheet #9, Defining Home Range. 9. Using part I of the activity sheet, students should write down some of the things they would need in their own home range, such as where to find food, buy clothes, live, play with friends, etc. 10. After a few minutes, ask volunteers to share some of the things they might need in their home range. 11. Have students discuss where their territory is located within their home range. (The student's territory would include their bedroom, house, yard, etc.) 12. To help the class better understand and define their own home range, have students complete Part II of the activity sheet. Students should think about some of the things they do during a normal week (go to school, visit friends, go shopping for food and clothes, play basketball, soccer, etc.). 13. Students should then write down each of these activities onto the left hand column. In the middle column, they should record where they do these things, and in the far right column, record about how many minutes away from their home (or territory) each of these things take place. About how many List some of the things you do Where do you do these things? minutes away from in a normal week. home are these things? 14. Once students have recorded all activities, try to determine which student (or students) has the smallest home range, and which student (or students) has the greatest home range. Closure: 1. Ask what might happen if part of a student's home range was no longer available to them. For example, what might happen if the portion of their home range containing the local grocery store(s) was no longer available to them. How would they to adjust to this change (probably, they would travel to another grocery store further away, thus expanding their home range). 2. Explain that this is similar to what happened to the ancient Washoe when settlers began arriving into the Washoe home range. If settlers claimed territory in the pinenut groves, the Washoe could no longer use it. That portion of their home range was no longer available, similar to excluding a supermarket today. 3. Ask how the Washoe would have to adjust their life style if a portion of their home range disappeared in this manner. For example, what might they have to do if a portion of the pinenut forest was no longer available because the trees were cut down by settlers for firewood? (They might have to look for new groves, or find a new food source.) 4. Pass out a sheet of lined paper to all students. 5. Ask students to think about their home range. How would their home range change if the population suddenly increased ten times in only four years. How would this tremendous population growth effect the natural environment? The schools? Community services? Crime? 6. As a writing activity, instruct students to write about how their home range and territory might change as the population grows, and how they think they would deal with this change. You might want to make a list of specific items students should include in this assignment in order to help guide students and, make evaluation of the papers less subjective. Evaluation: Today's activity sheet should be accurate and reflect an understanding of what was being asked in both part I and II. The written assignment should demonstrate an understanding of problems that occur when the home range changes, and show insights on how that student might adapt to this change. Text for Home Range Transparency Lesson 9: The Washoe Home Range Home Range Defining Home Range Part I Write down all of the things you might need in your home range. Part II List some of the things you do Where do you do these things? How many minutes in a normal week. from home are these things? |
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