|
Wetland Activities
-- PreK-2, Grades
3-5, Grades 6-8
 |
|
Wetlands
are wet lands, not ponds, streams or lakes.
Learn the different types, and how
animals and plants use what their habitat offers.
-
Habitat and Classification
Wetlands
are soggy places. They may be home
to insects, reptiles and amphibians. Classify
some animals into these groups, such as ants, turtles, frogs, salamanders,
mosquitoes, and so forth.
-
Adaptation
Since
wetlands have so much water, animals and plants have to adapt to the water.
What kinds of adaptations would you find in tadpoles, ducks, and frogs
that adapts them to the water? What
other adaptations do some other animals have?
Discuss what you observed on the trail.
Use art, literature, geography or other form to record what you
observed. Compare the
experience of groups that walked the trail with different naturalists.
When you have recorded the observations in an art
project, and compared notes among the students, predict what the wetlands
look like in another season, or in the dark.
Is there a special amphibian adapted to moonlight?
Include things you found familiar with new ideas.
What would happen to all the
animals in a wetland if it were filled in to make an office building?
|
|
-
Habitat
Wetlands
include bogs, marshes, swamps, and vernal pools.
These habitats are wet at least part of each year.
Find out what ducks, geese, turtles, frogs and insects need to live in
this habitat.
-
Classification
Wetlands
are home to many species of insects, crustaceans, mammals, birds, reptiles and
amphibians. What are the
characteristics that separate these groups?
What group is right for ducks, spotted turtles, wood frogs, cat birds,
and squirrels?
-
Adaptation
Frogs
are well adapted to water, with webbed feet and strong legs for swimming.
What other adaptations do they have?
Hint; what about tadpoles? Where
are there eyes? What adaptations do
ducks have? What do these
adaptations do for the animals? Use
artwork, such as clay or paint, to visualize a wetland animal and its
adaptations.
-
Habitat
Look at pictures of wetland types, such as bogs, swamps and marshes.
What type did you visit. How
do you know? Can you match the
characteristics for each one? Look
at pictures of lakes and rivers. How
are they different from wetlands? Could
you find a wetland beside a lake? Prepare a food chain for one of the wetlands
you visited. It can be in words,
artwork, or another form.
-
Classification
You might have seen or heard
several birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, or reptiles on your visit.
Put the animals in their proper classification.
Explain why each one belongs
in its group. Make
puppets of some of the animals, and show how they would interact.
-
Adaptation
Spotted turtles live in ponds and wetlands.
They are adapted to a very different life style from the box turtles that
visit wetlands for water. What are
the adaptations that you saw in these animals?
Design a turtle for another habitat, and show what kinds of adaptations
it might have. Your habitat may be
an imaginary one.
|
|
-
Habitat
Wetlands include bogs, fresh and salt water marshes,
swamps, fens, wet meadows and vernal pools. These habitats are wet at
least part of each year. Vernal pools are the most seasonal. By
definition, they are dry at least part of the year, usually in the summer.
(Why?) Wetlands are important habitat for many animals and plants, but
also an important part of our habitat. Explore how wetlands store and
purify water. Are there wetlands near the school?
-
Geology
Wetlands are often lower than dry uplands. New
England was sculpted by glaciers until about 10,000 years ago, creating our
present day up and down landscape. Many wetland animals also need uplands
in their habitat. What happens to an animal when wetlands are protected,
and uplands are used for building? Uplands catch much of the water that
eventually flows into wetlands for storage. What happens to rain that is
intercepted by roofs and parking lots and diverted down a drain? Does it
refill wetlands? Contact the local DPW to find out where drains empty.
-
Adaptation
Animals and plants that live in vernal pools must be
adapted to a cycle of wet and dry. How is a mosquito adapted to that
cycle, or a frog? Look at the life history of a wood frog. How is it
connected to uplands? Predict the consequences of building houses around a
vernal pool.
-
Habitat
When a vernal pool is low in spring, fairy shrimp may not appear that year.
Can you think of reasons why not? How would you test your theory?
Did you see typical wetland animals and plants on your visit? Which ones
were obligate species? Write a history of a wetland through the seasons,
showing what animals would be there in each season, and which plants might be in
leaf or flower.
-
Geology
Learn how glaciers carved New England up, and left scars to fill with water.
Find out what geological features in your town were formed by glaciers. If
you live on the coast, determine how the coastline has changed over the
centuries since the last ice age.
-
Adaptation
Fairy shrimp eggs may stay alive 10 years or more in the dry state. Wood
frogs and spotted salamanders may live for 30 years. These are adaptations
to life in a vernal pool. How do these adaptations help them survive as a
species?
It is important to know where wetlands are so they can be
protected. How would you map a wetland area?
| |
|
