Classroom Activity:
Population Study Game
Animals of the Great Black Swamp – Gray Wolves
Subject: Biology/Ecology/History/Geography
Grades: 2-6
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: This activity works best in a large space. No other materials needed but a large
Koosh™ ball can be used as the hunter.
Lesson objective: Students will understand that an animal’s patterns of behavior is
related to the environment. This includes the kinds and numbers of other organisms
present, the availability of food and resources, and the physical attributes of the
environment.
History Content: Create a timeline for students and place the Great Black Swamp
on the timeline. Present students with a map of this region circa 1800 with the Great
Black Swamp highlighted.
The Great Black Swamp was an oozing mass of water, mud, snakes, wolves, wildcats,
biting flies, gnats and mosquitoes. It was stretched from Ft. Wayne, Indiana to
Sandusky in an area around the size of the state of Connecticut.
High water stood on the surface until it evaporated in the hot summer months. Much
of the swamp was covered with a forest of giant oak, sycamore, hickory, walnut, ash,
elm, maple and cottonwood trees, except in a few prairie areas where limestone just
under the surface would not support timber growth. The area was so difficult to
travel through that Native Americans hunted there only as weather permitted. As
settlers began to move into the area in the early 1800s, a “corduroy” road was built
and eventually the swamp was drained to permit agriculture and settlement. This
activity allows students to experience the changes in habitat had on the gray wolf
population.
Science Content: Many factors affect the ability of wildlife to survive over time.
Weather conditions, disease, predators, pollution and habitat destruction are some
examples. Habitat is the key to wildlife survival and population size. For the purposes
of this exercise, habitat is defined as food, cover and water. If any one of them is
lacking or restricted in availability then wildlife numbers are reduced.
Directions:
1. Divide the class into two groups; one of gray wolves and one of habitat components.
(Start with fewer wolves than habitat components.)
A leader or the teacher should record the number of gray wolves at the beginning and end
of each bout or round.
2. Explain that we are using three elements to define habitat for the purpose of this
exercise - food, water, and cover. Let students know that food will be represented by
elk, water by the Maumee River and shelter represented by stands of elm and ash trees
as these things would have been part of the gray wolf habitat. Demonstrate how to make
the symbols for each habitat component. For food, place both hands over the stomach. For
water, hold the fingers to the lips. For cover, touch your hands together over your head.
(You may also make signs that each student will choose and hold before the activity
begins.)
3. Establish two horizontal lines approximately 6-8 feet apart in an open area. Put the gray
wolves behind one line and the habitat components behind the other.
4. Have the gray wolves and the habitat components turn around on the line so that they
cannot see one another. Everyone will decide on a habitat component. The gray wolves are
deciding what component they need or want; the habitat components are deciding which of
the three they are. Each person makes the symbol for his or her chosen component (or
chooses a sign). Once they are ready, count slowly to three, and then allow both lines to
turn around.
5. Then allow students to mill about throughout the space between the two lines. The gray
wolves are looking for their habitat component; once the gray wolves have found the
component they want, they link hands with or stand by that component and walk back
behind the “gray wolf” line. Each wolf that reaches its necessary habitat component takes
the "food, in this case elk", "water", or "shelter, in this case elm and ash trees" back to the
wolf side of the line. "Capturing" a component represents the wolves successfully meeting
their needs and successfully reproducing as a result. Any wolf that fails to find its food,
water or shelter, dies and becomes part of the habitat.
NOTE I: When more than one gray wolves reaches a habitat component, the student
who arrives there first survives. The habitat person can only satisfy one gray wolf per
turn, so if two or more gray wolves try to get the same one, only the first one to reach the
habitat person survives. If no wolf needs a particular habitat component during a round,
the habitat component just stays where it is in the habitat.
NOTE II: After the first two rounds, introduce a “hunter” or “trapper” as a mortality
factor. Discuss how that changes the dynamics of the process and the relative pros and
cons of this. Hunters can “shoot” gray wolves by tossing a Koosh Ball at the wolves as
they make their way across to the habitat – those wolves then become habitat
components in the next round.
6. Record the number of gray wolves at the beginning of the activity and at the end of each
round on chart paper. Repeat the process as many times as you’d like - 10-15 rounds is
usually adequate to let participants see how population and habitat quality interact.
Habitat components may change what they represent after each round.
7. Upon completion, gather the students together to discuss the activity. Encourage them
to talk about what they experienced and saw.
8. Discuss how this exercise relates to what happened in the Great Black Swamp, once an
area teaming with snakes, elk, black bear, insects and other animals native to the region.
Once the swamp was drained what kinds of animals replaced those native animals in this
region and why? Gray wolves became especially endangered in the region. Can you
hypothesize why that was?
Introduce the terms extirpated and extinct.
Ohio Standards Alignment
Science Content Standards
Grade 2 Content Statement
Living things cause changes on Earth.
Living things function and interact with their physical environments. Living things cause changes in
the environments where they live; the changes can be very noticeable or slightly noticeable, fast or
slow.
The impact and actions of living things must be investigated and explored. The focus is not limited to
human interaction with the environment.
Grade 3 Content Statement
Individuals of the same kind differ in their traits and sometimes the differences give individuals an
advantage in surviving and reproducing.
Plants and animals have physical features that are associated with the environments where they live.
Plants and animals have certain physical or behavioral characteristics that improve their chances of surviving
in particular environments.
Individuals of the same kind have different characteristics that they have inherited. Sometimes these different
characteristics give individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing.
Grade 4 Content Statement
Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes
harmful.
Ecosystems can change gradually or dramatically. When the environment changes, some plants and
animals survive and reproduce and others die or move to new locations. An animal’s patterns of behavior are
related to the environment. This includes the kinds and numbers of other organisms present, the availability
of food and resources, and the physical attributes of the environment.
Grade 5 Content Statement
Organisms perform a variety of roles in an ecosystem.
Organisms have symbiotic relationships in which individuals of one species are dependent upon individuals
of another species for survival. Symbiotic relationships can be categorized as mutualism where both species
benefit, commensalism where one species benefits and the other is unaffected, and parasitism where one
species benefits and the other is harmed.
Investigations of locally threatened or endangered species must be conducted and include considerations of
the effects of remediation programs, species loss and the introduction of new species on the local
environment.
Social Studies Content Standards
Grade 2 Social Studies
Historical Thinking and Skills
Content Statements:
1. Events in local history can be shown on
timelines organized by years, decades and
centuries.
Heritage
Content Statements:
3. Science and technology have changed
daily life.
Human Systems
Content Statements:
7. Human activities alter the physical
environment, both positively and
negatively.
Grade 3 Social Studies
Historical Thinking and Skills
Content Statement:
1. Events in local history can be shown on
timelines organized by years, decades and
centuries.
Places and Regions
Content Statement:
5. Daily life is influenced by the agriculture,
industry and natural resources in different
communities.
Heritage
Content Statement:
3. Local communities change over time.
Human Systems
Content Statement:
6. Evidence of human modification of the
environment can be observed in the local
community.
Grade 4 Social Studies
Human Systems
Content Statements:
12. People have modified the environment since prehistoric times. There are both positive and negative
consequences for modifying the environment in Ohio and the United States.
13. The population of the United States has changed over time, becoming more diverse (e.g., racial, ethnic,
linguistic, religious). Ohio’s population has become increasingly reflective of the cultural diversity of the
United States.
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This game was adapted from “Oh Deer,” a Project WILD activity. Project WILD is a national
environmental education program developed by the Western Regional Environmental Education
Council.