Biglerville Science Day

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of participating in a science day at Biglerville Elementary School. I must say before I go into detail about what we did the school was extremely organized and overall very nice. Mrs. Colino (the school principal) was very welcoming and supportive during the entire process. I would strongly encourage anyone who has the opportunity to participate or help out in the science day to do so!

The purpose of the science day was to build awareness about the environment, ecosystems and the interactions that occur within the environment and ecosystems.

My particular group did a version of a predator prey game.

Before we began the game we had to organize the inside of the classroom and the outside courtyard like a mini jungle. We flipped desks over, put blankets on top of tables, and placed large cardboard boxes all around the room. When the kids came in they were amazed!

Once everything was set up we had a brief whole group lesson on the definition of a predator and a prey with animal examples placed on place mats that students were sitting on (the yellow and orange things in the picture above).

The rules of the game are as follows:

The predators cannot cross the hunting zone which was divided by masking tape.

There is no running and no yelling!

The predators wear pennies while the prey wear flags

The prey will have 30 seconds in each round to hide somewhere in the room

The predators find the prey by calling out their name, calling out the body part that is exposed,  or calling out how they can see the prey

Once the prey is caught they become a predator

Playing the game the kids had a blast!

Here are two students hiding from the predators!

This prey is doing a great job of staying unseen.

At the end of the game we gathered students together for a brief discussion about the purpose of the game. We attempted (through teacher prompts and questions) to draw the comparison of their feelings and methods in the game to that of what predators and prey experience out in the wild.

Overall it was a great day and a great lesson!