2. Animals of Point Reyes

Objective: 

Students will use their knowledge gained of both the habitats, and types of adaptations that animals use to survive in their environments.  They will create a fictitious animal that will be able to survive in one of the many Pt Reyes habitats that they have visited.   The students will also understand that “Natural and human made disaster may affect the increasing, decreasing and even causing extinction of their animals.  The phenomenon may even change their animal as seen in the peppered moth activity in the beginning.

Materials:

1. Science Journals for ongoing observations of animal adaptations from field trip.
2. Poster board or clay
3. Markers, pens, of oil pastels for poster picture of animal
4. Cut outs of the natural phenomenon that effects their animals
5. Hat or Bucket to draw natural phenomenon from.

Intro to Lesson: 

Students will take notes throughout their trip to Point Reyes of the various habitats, and adaptations seen by organisms that live in those areas.  Towards the end of this trip they will start thinking about an imaginary animal that could live in one or more of these habitats.  

The Lesson:

1. Students will use the notes to create an animal and a poster or sculpture (or both) of their animals to share with the class.  
2. They will need to explain how the animal
   • Evades predation
   • Gets food
   • Reproduces
   • Coloration
   • Habitat
   • Shelter
   • Any other special adaptations
3. Students will then be able to draw a out of a hat a change in the environment, such as :
   • Draught year
   • Building of a strip mall
   • Introduction of a new predator
   • Decrease in a certain food (fish, insect, mammal prey, or even “crop failure”)
   • Reintroduction of either a prey  or predator species to the area (Wolf or Tule Elk)
   • Illness or disease
   • Overpopulation

   And then describe how this would affect the population of their animal and how they would or would not adapt to the changes.

Tying up loose ends and student reflection: 

Students will then write a reflection of how their animals came into being, where they picked up the ideas for the different adaptations (from what they observed on their trip) and how important these adaptations are for survival.  They will also reflect on how the disaster or change in the environment affected their animal and how the same change could affect organisms they observed in Point Reyes.  Last they will reflect on what they would change about their animal after this and why they would change that attribute.