Animal Olympics Challenge Instructions
Wildlife Discovery Days 2010
The Animal Olympics Challenge introduces students to animals that have Olympicworthy skills (adaptations). In small groups, students travel from station to station to participate in physical challenges
that compare their skills to those of animals, and their classmates. At least two volunteers should work each station.
There are 10 stations.
Instructions :
1. Greet the students as they arrive.
2. If this is their first station, give them a worksheet (paper medal). One worksheet per group.
3. Share with them: basic needs, adaptations, interactions and problems in wild, do adaptations help them?
4. Explain how the activity works:
• Have any of them watched the Olympics? The best athletes in the world compete during the Olympics. In a
few months, the Olympics will be held in Canada.
•
Animals are incredible athletes, too. In fact, they would beat us in almost every category.
•
Today, students will find out how their physical skills compare to the animals. As they travel throughout
the Zoo, they stop at the stations and take turns taking the challenges.
•
For each challenge completed, that animal will be highlighted on the worksheet (paper medal).
•
They can earn bronze (really any color except gold or silver), silver, and gold medals (star stickers) when
they complete 5 , 7, and 9 or more challenges.
5. At each station, allow one student to take the challenge. Follow the specific directions for that station
6. The results are being graphed at the station, add in the group’s data. Ask the students what they can learn
from the results.
7. Once they have completed a challenge, you will highlight the focus animal on their worksheet (paper
medal) with a Bingo dauber or marker.
8. If this is their 5th challenge, place any star sticker (except silver or gold) on their medal.
9. If this is their 7th challenge, place a silver star sticker on their medal.
10. If this is their 9th or 10th challenge, place a gold star sticker on their medal.
11. Congratulate them on getting closer to the next medal. Tell them where to find the next nearby station.
Did they meet all 10 challenges? Send them to the 4-D Theater to get a gorilla poster for classroom!
WDD 2010
PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com
Animal Olympics Challenge - Wings of the World
Students compare their “wing”-flapping abilities to birds.
1. Ask the students which bird can flap its wings the fastest: vulture, pigeon,
hummingbird, heron, or chickadee. Hummingbirds can flap their wings the fastest,
up to 100 times per second. Why do they flap so fast? (To be able to hover and
move quickly and accurately.) Do they think small or large birds flap their wings
faster? (Smaller birds flap their wings faster than larger birds. Smaller wings have
to flap more often than larger wings to stay aloft.)
(Show the page of bird photos.)
2. If your arms were wings, how fast would you be able to flap them? Have the group choose one student who they
think can flap the fastest. See how many times he can flap his “wings” in 10 seconds.
(Use the stop watch.)
3. Congratulate him on flapping faster than a vulture, which flaps about once per second (10 times in 10 seconds). A
vulture tends to soar more than flap. Did he flap as fast as any of the other birds?
Vulture
10 times
Heron
20 times
Pigeon
60 times
Chickadee
270 times
Hummingbird
700 times
4. On the bar graph, color in a block on the bar indicating how many times the student flapped his wings during 10
seconds. What can they learn from these results? How many times could most students flap? Would this be
enough to fly if we had wings instead of arms?
5. Mark the hummingbird on the worksheet (paper medal).
6. Encourage the students to see the bird show at 12:00am and 12:30pm.
Number of students
7. Point them in the direction of the polar bear or Giraffe Ridge station.
Example of graph:
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
4
7
10
13
16
19
Number of wing flaps
WDD 2010
PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com
22
25
28