The American Red Squirrel an Outdoor Inquiry Lesson
Summary
Students will discover the interdependence of the coniferous forest and the American Red Squirrel in an outdoor setting during the first month of school. Students will examine evidence, partially eaten red pine cone shafts, and determine what animal could have chewed these cones. Through teacher led group inquiry the students will try to figure out why. Students will go outside to the pine woods and search for pine, fir, or spruce cone shafts, along with whole pine cones with seeds. Further searching would uncover middens or cache sights of the red squirrel. Back inside the classroom students will search the cells of pine or spruce cones for the seeds. The seeds can be drawn and or taped inside nature journals along with drawing and writing about the red squirrel. Students will then generate other questions about the red squirrel and determine methods for finding out their answers.
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Learning Goals
This activity is designed to make students more comfortable learning outdoors in their School Forest by collecting samples, connecting prior knowledge of the red pine tree to behavior of the red squirrel, and an introduction to the white spruce. It is also a connecting lesson for observing seeds, tree parts, and discovering animal adaptations in their outdoor habitat. The science processes skills of observing and recording findings will be practiced through drawing and writing in students' nature journals. Vocabulary used will be cones, cells, middens, cache, adaptations, and habitat.
Standards Match
IV. Life Science/Diversity of Organisms: The students will recognize that plants and animals have life cycles.
Standards Match
IV. Life Science/Diversity of Organisms: The students will recognize that plants and animals have life cycles.
Context for Use
This field activity is suitable for an outdoor setting containing coniferous trees which have American Red Squirrels in residence. Students in grades K-4 would delight in finding cones, seeds, and evidence of red squirrel activity. The time outdoors would be about 50 minutes. Time indoors following would be another 50 minutes. Outdoor rules and behavior would have been set in an earlier excursion to the woods. Use of the nature journal and recording and writing techniques would also have been introduced earlier.
Description and Teaching Materials
Activity Description
This activity can only be done in early September before the seeds of the red pine or spruce have been totally cached our hidden away for winter by the red squirrel.
Teachers would have to go out to their nature areas to search for shafts and make sure there are enough for students to discover during the outing. The activity would be introduced indoors by giving small groups of students partially eaten pine cone shafts as evidence. Their job would be to determine what animal could have done this and why. The group usually comes up with the idea of "squirrel". This would be the time to show a picture of the red squirrel. I save reading about the squirrel for the next day. Now is the time to venture out to the pine forest and collect partially eaten pine cone shafts. The students will soon find middens and holes under the roots of trees where the red squirrel has left piles of shafts and cells of the cones. While outdoors the next step would be to find whole cones still containing seeds and bring them back into the classroom for examination. It is too hard for all members of a classroom to see how to remove the seeds from a cone outdoors. Once inside, the overhead projector gives a good shadow view of the cells and the small seeds underneath. A forceps is helpful in picking out the seeds. Several seeds can be taped into students' nature journals along with questions, writings, or drawings of the red squirrel. Additional information from Minnesota Conservation Volunteer can be read together and used as springboard for scientific drawings and further observations while outdoors.
This activity can only be done in early September before the seeds of the red pine or spruce have been totally cached our hidden away for winter by the red squirrel.
Teachers would have to go out to their nature areas to search for shafts and make sure there are enough for students to discover during the outing. The activity would be introduced indoors by giving small groups of students partially eaten pine cone shafts as evidence. Their job would be to determine what animal could have done this and why. The group usually comes up with the idea of "squirrel". This would be the time to show a picture of the red squirrel. I save reading about the squirrel for the next day. Now is the time to venture out to the pine forest and collect partially eaten pine cone shafts. The students will soon find middens and holes under the roots of trees where the red squirrel has left piles of shafts and cells of the cones. While outdoors the next step would be to find whole cones still containing seeds and bring them back into the classroom for examination. It is too hard for all members of a classroom to see how to remove the seeds from a cone outdoors. Once inside, the overhead projector gives a good shadow view of the cells and the small seeds underneath. A forceps is helpful in picking out the seeds. Several seeds can be taped into students' nature journals along with questions, writings, or drawings of the red squirrel. Additional information from Minnesota Conservation Volunteer can be read together and used as springboard for scientific drawings and further observations while outdoors.
Assessment
Nature journal drawings and writings can be assessed for details and understandings of interdependence.
Standards
Standards Match
IV. Life Science/Diversity of Organisms: The students will recognize that plants and animals have life cycles.
IV. Life Science/Interdependence of Life: The students will understand that organisms live in different environments. The student will understand that plants and animals have different structures that serve various functions. The student will understand that an organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of its environment.
IV. Life Science/Diversity of Organisms: The students will recognize that plants and animals have life cycles.
IV. Life Science/Interdependence of Life: The students will understand that organisms live in different environments. The student will understand that plants and animals have different structures that serve various functions. The student will understand that an organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of its environment.