Lesson: resource limitation and overcrowding
Unit: Population Growth
Materials: at least ten hula hoops (about one for every three players)
Age Level: 3rd-6th
Space Requirements: large open area
Time: one hour
Objectives:
· Students will experience resource limitation and competition
that results
· Students will experience the stress of overpopulation on individuals
· Students will journal on their feelings from the activity
· Students will realize that as space is limited, individuals
must invent more efficient and creative ways of using the space
Plan: ½ hour: Deer and Resources
Directions:
· First, teach the motions for the resources. The motion for
food is hands on stomach. The motion for water is hands on throat. The
motion for shelter is hands making a triangle above head.
· Split the group in half, and make one half the deer and the
other half the resources. Have each group in a line facing the other
group at least twenty feet apart.
· Then have everyone turn around so that they can not see the
other group. Yell “decide,” which means each resource needs
to decide what they are going to be and each deer needs to decide what
they need, and make that motion.
· Then yell, “go,” which means they turn around and
the deer run to the resource that they need. There can only be one deer
for each resource. Deer that do not find the resource they need then
become a resource, because they died. Resources that were eaten become
a deer to show population growth.
· As they get the hang of the game tell the resources that they
can not be one of the three. For example, they can not be water because
there is a drought.
· Then the next round (representing a year) say they can’t
be food, because the drought the year before effected the food supply.
· Later in the game have three of the resources link arms to
represent a parking lot; they can not be eaten by the deer. Another
round, have four resources link arms representing a mall. The deer population
will dwindle because resources are being taken away for human development.
· To end the game, have all the resources forming parking lots
and malls, so that all the deer die.
· Discussion: After the game talk with the players about what
happened to the deer from year to year. When there were a lot of resources
one year, there were a lot of deer the next. This is an example of the
bottom-up control. If there are many deer one year, the next year there
will be fewer resources. This is an example of top-down control. Talk
about how the deer had to compete with each other for the resources.
Ask the students what they felt like when they died, because human’s
build malls and parking lots.
½ hour: hula hoop challenge
Directions:
· Option one: Lay the hula hoops on the ground, slightly spaced
out from each other. Tell the players that they must always have two
feet in a hula-hoop. When you yell “switch,” they must move
to a different hula-hoop. Each time “switch” is yelled, remove
a hula-hoop until only one is remaining. The players must find a way
to have everyone with two feet in the hoop. Hint: players need not be
standing. This activity shows resource partitioning and the importance
of efficient use of space when it becomes limited.
· Option two: Start out with a fixed number of hula-hoops spaced
out on the ground. For example two hula-hoops for fifteen players. Tell
three or four of the players to stand in the hula-hoops; they must have
both feet in a hoop. As the game progresses tell the players that their
population is increasing and they need to share the space. Keep adding
one player at a time until every player is in one of the hula-hoops.
The players will find that the more people per hoop the less space they
have. This shows the effects of population growth on individuals. Afterwards
ask the players how they felt as the game progressed.
· Journal: Have the students write about their thoughts and feelings
from the activities
