Plant Conservation and Biodiversity
1. RAINFOREST products/native plant products; maybe use a theme ... what trees do we have that can make musical instruments (maybe 6 tropical, 6 native plant species)
2. BUTTERFLIES can you find the butterflies in this picture (Camouflage ... now you see me, now you don’t); cracker, zebra longwings on the holywood, longwings on the Spanish moss; blue morpho moving, butterflies with striations on striated leaves, the different green butterflies; how about chrysalids, caterpillars * Monarch butterfly - connects temperate and tropical ecosystems
Variation: can you find the flowers in this picture [this could lead into the next activity, co-evolution]
3. COEVOLUTION match the flower with the pollinator; match the fruit/seed with the seed disperser; match the plant with the butterfly caterpillar stage
Mix-and-Match (10)
4. using the zoom, can you find maybe 6 things in this picture (who am I, where do I live, what job do I do); integrates horizontal and vertical STRUCTURE AND SCALE
- can start large with birds and animals, work down to galls on leaves, insects under the bark, don’t forget what might live in the soil; another variation ... can you find the connections in this picture ex mycorrhizal fungi, squirrels and acorns
Variation: how about “I am a ... and am shopping for real estate” ex. Tree swallow or red-winged blackbird or robin (need certain kinds of materials for nesting, food for young)
* can you fix this picture; every system includes a disturbance regime; plant diversity vs monoculture
* can the process of photosynthesis be turned into a group activity, a game or dance
* different plant lifestyles (Dufferin Islands, for example: spring wild flower, spicebush, canopy tree, vine, cattails... compare vines in the Glen to rainforest vines; can we compare temperate with tropical rainforest (Butterfly Conservatory)
* heartbeat of a tree ... a springtime activity [note seasonal activities, a place and TIME for everything] for example, different foraging techniques in wintering flocks of birds ...BCCH upside, in cracks and crevices for eggs, larvae of insects, spiders; kinglets flit and hover where heavier birds can’t go; DOWO goes up and drills into the trunk;WBNU goes down; BRCR goes into the spaces between bark flakes
* any how-to-grow activities
* keep a journal, list 10 things, etc