Forest Trail Curriculum
Students hike through the forest and learn how forest organisms adapt to forest
conditions, interact as an ecosystem, and how the ecosystem changes over time.
Students learn basic tree identification, the carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle, and how
man can and has affected the environment.
Learning Targets:



I can describe how inherited traits (structures and functions) help organisms
survive
in their environment.
I can describe an ecosystem and how living things interact and live within
their environment.
I can describe how the carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle and photosynthesis help
trees and plants survive and thrive.
TEKS:










Collect information by detailed observations
Construct appropriate simple graphs, tables, maps, and charts using
technology, including computers, to organize, examine, and evaluate
information
Collect, record, and analyze information using tools, including
cameras…notebooks…and materials to support observations of habitats
Within the natural environment, students learn how changes occur on
Earth’s surface and that predictable patterns occur in the sky. Students
learn that the natural world consists of resources, including nonrenewable,
renewable, and alternative energy sources
Students learn that structure and function of organisms can improve the
survival of member of a species. Students learn to differentiate between
inherited traits and learned behaviors.
Identify alternative energy resources
Students will observe the way organisms live and
survive in their ecosystems by interacting with living and nonliving elements.
Students learn to differentiate between inherited and learned
behaviors.
Compare the structures and functions of different species that help them
live and survive such as hooves on prairie animals or webbed feet in
aquatic animals
Differentiate between inherited traits of plants and
animals such as spines on a cactus or shape of a beak and learned
behaviors such as an animal learning tricks or a child riding a bicycle
Forest Trail
When you meet your group at the trail head, you will assign an animal to them
based on the four native animals in the journal (nutria, coyote, armadillo, and
copperhead snake). You will reference these animals throughout the trail and the
students will use them later on at school for a post camp project.
Activity #1: Inherited Traits (p.7)
Time: 10 minutes
Location: ERC and Cedar Elm Grove or Sign #1
TEKS: Introduction:
Activity:
 Walking from Forest Trail sign begin talking to students about forest trail.
Encourage them to use their senses throughout the class. Feel the leaves,
smell flowers, look at surroundings, listen to sounds.
 Discuss difference between coniferous and deciduous (hardwood) forests
 Parts of a tree: Discuss the parts of a tree. Have students “make” a tree
either as a group or with their own bodies. Have students label the two trees
with the cards that describe the function of each part [roots (absorbs water,
gives stability), trunk-bark (protects), cambium (tissue layer between wood
and bark), phloem (carries food), xylem (carries water), branches (support
leaves), leaves (photosynthesis)]
 Discuss inherited traits.
o What is an inherited trait? (Characteristics that are passed down from
parents)
o Ask students to give examples (Hair color, eye color, size, etc)
o Do you think plants have inherited traits? (Yes)
o Look at this tree. It is an Eastern Red Cedar. Can you name some
inherited traits of this tree? (Leaves, bark, size, shape, color, smell,
berries, trunk/branches, etc)
 Point out Cedar Elms. Have students feel “cat tongue” leaves.
 Discuss relationship between Eastern Red Cedar (ERC) and Cedar Elm.
o ERC seeks out sun and is first to grow in prairie. Cedar Elms “follow”
ERC into prairie and grow close to or intertwined with the ERC.
Activity 2: Structures/Functions and Learned Behaviors (p.8)
Time: 20 minutes
Location: Woodpecker Holes or Sign #2
Activity:
 Discuss animal adaptations: (structure or behavior that a species develops
overtime to help it survive), structures/functions: (a body part that does a
certain “job” for an organism/the “job” that body part does), and learned
behaviors: (behavior that is developed through experience and observation).
Have students give examples of each.
 Discuss different adaptations animals have to survive such as specific beaks
on birds, different feet/claws/paws on animals to help them run faster or dig
deeper, and camouflage to help animals hide from their predators.
 Camouflage game:(Play at south pavilion or Bios d Arc shelter) Object of
the game is to use adaptations and learned behaviors such as camouflage or
figuring out they need to hide closer to the trail after the first round to avoid
being eaten by the hawk or snake.
Explain to students that they are now bunnies trying to make it back
to their den before the hawk sees them and eats them or a snake finds
them and eats them. Explain bunnies like to live in their dens but have
to go out every so often to get water and food. Ask the students to list
some adaptations and learned behaviors a bunny might have as well
as some inherited traits of a bunny. (Camouflage, legs that allow them
to hop quickly, ability to stay really still for long periods of time)
o Tell the students the trail is the den. They will have 10 seconds to hide
in the field and behind the trees. You, the hawk, will have your back to
the kids as they hide. Give boundaries and explain they have to stay in
the field. After 10 seconds, you will turn around and see if you can see
any of them. If you can see them, or identify any part of them (ie. the
color of their coat or their hat) they will be eaten by the hawk, they
are out and have to come back to the trail. After that initial look, they
will have two 3 second chances to get back before you turn around,
each time if you can identify them, they are out.
o The last 3 second chance, let them know if they do not get back by
that point, they will be “eaten” by a snake in the grass.
o Play at least twice so they have the chance to “learn” from their first
try. (Learned behaviors)
o Ask the students what adaptations they used and what learned
behaviors they used and how it helped their strategy.
Answer questions in journal.
o

Activity #3: Ecotones (p.9)
Time: 15-20 minutes
Location: Retaining Wall before South Pavilion or Sign #3
Activity:
 Ask students to help define key words like ecosystem (habitat, consisting of
animals and other living and non-living things and how they interact in their
environment).
 List examples (forest, dessert, prairie, rain forest, tundra, freshwater-lake,
ocean, etc) What ecosystems do you see here? (Forest and prairie) “This is
called an ecotone: when two ecosystems come together in one place and
overlap”
 Discuss the benefits of ecotone (most biodiversity-variety of plant and
animal life. Some animals live in prairie and need forest for food or shelter,
others live in forest and go to prairie for food. Ex: Hawk lives in forest, finds
mice to eat in prairie.)
 Have students go out gather items from the ecotone and meet back at Venn
diagram.
 Students will stand in circles of Venn diagram according to where that item
would be found.
 Or call out different plants, animals, or other objects and have students stand
in the Venn diagram based on where they think those things would most
likely be found (forest, prairie, or f/p ecotone).
 Have students transfer findings to diagram in journal.
Activity #4 – Succession (p.10)
Time: 15-20 minutes
Location: South Pavilion or Sign #4
Activity:
 Define Succession (process where ecosystems change over time)
o As trees begin to grow in the prairie, the grasses begin to die off. As
larger trees (hardwoods) begin to grow the smaller trees (ERC) begin
to die off. The process of one ecotone becoming another ecotone.
o Also use Willow Lake as an example of a lake filling with sediment and
drying up, then turning into a marsh or swamp and eventually
becoming a grassland or forest.
 Succession Demonstration:
o Divide your group of students into 4 groups (Grasses, Eastern Red
Cedars, Cedar Elms, and Oaks). Assign a motion to each group.
o Everyone will line up in a row (the forest)
o Choose 5-6 students to be prairie grass and have them move to other
side of the South Pavilion forming the Prairie line.
o Ask: “What is first tree that usually invades in prairie?” (Eastern Red
Cedars because they require lots of sunlight. They are invasive, native
but invasive.) .
o Have all the Cedars walk over to the Prairie line. “What kind of biome
is it looking like now?” – a Coniferous Forest
o Have Cedars walk to the Forest line, grabbing a Cedar Elm and
bringing it back to the Prairie line– have 2-3 Grasses sit down (die).
Have the kids explain why they think they would have died. (Lack of
resources).
o Explain that Oaks are strong. Point out the oaks around the pavilion.
Ask: “What do you notice about these trees?” (They are big, lots of
leaves, taller than most of the other trees in the area. They will take a
lot of resources.)
o Have the Oaks walk over to the Forest.
o Explain that since the oaks are so strong and so big, the Eastern Red
Cedars are having trouble getting enough resources to survive. Have
the ERC sit down. “What kind of forest does this look like now?”
Deciduous/Hard wood
 Have the students draw the Process of Succession in their journals.
Activity #5 Leaf Diagram and CO2/02 Cycle (p.11)
Time: 20 minutes
Location: Sumac Shelter or Sign #5
Activity:
 Before leaving South Pavilion explain to students that they will need to find a
leaf as you walk down the trail. Encourage them to pick a leaf at eye level or
above (not off the ground or a vine; avoid poison ivy). Try to get a leaf that is
whole, not dry or damaged by breakage or bugs.
 At shelter have students identify their leaf using the chart on back wall, do a
rubbing of leaf and identify it.
 Discuss photosynthesis (plants use energy from the sun to create food for
plant)
 From there discuss CO2/O2 cycle (Plants absorb CO2 into leaves, through
photosynthesis they produce food and O2 (waste), animals breathe in O2,
through cellular respiration produce CO2 (waste) which is exhaled) Thus
plants and animals have a symbiotic relationship (we depend on each
other)
Activity 6: Sensory Map (p.12)
Time: 20-25 minutes
Location: Forest Trail, Willow Lake, and Willow Shelter or Sign #6
Activity:
Exploration and Sensory Map:
Depending on the season and the lake level*, have students hike down to Willow
Lake from Sumac Shelter and explore the area surrounding the lake. (south trails)
 Have students observe animal tracks, plants, the lake, and the wildlife
surrounding the lake as they hike up towards Willow Lake.
 At Willow Lake, have the students create a map on their Shelter Journal
Page, drawing what they saw, smelt, felt, using their legend to label the
senses they used to observe each item they drew.
 Have the students observe their surroundings and from their surroundings
determine north, south, east and west and write it on their maps. (Lakewest, trail-east, sumac shelter-south, cabins-north)
 Have the students listen for 2 minutes as they sit at Willow Lake. After 2
minutes, have the students draw what they heard and from which
direction they think they heard it. Label it on the map with the key from
their legend.
 Discuss the Lake. What did they see, hear, feel, or smell? Through their
observations, what do they think is happening to the lake? Predict how the
lake looks during different seasons. How would the animals be affected
during different seasons? (Willow Lake is at the bottom of the hill and is
slowly filling with sediment – ex. of succession. During seasons of low
rainfall the lake will become almost completely dry. The trees around the
lake are Black Willows and are common in “wet” areas. Many wildlife use
this lake as a water source, it isn’t uncommon to see raccoon, nutria, blue
heron, and other tracks by the water’s edge)
 Repeat the Sensory Map activity again, this time having the students take
on the role of the pre-selected animal for their group. Discuss similarities
and differences in perspective from human to animal.
*If lake is too high to walk down into it, have the students walk on the trail to Willow
Shelter, and have them observe from the shelter, looking around, smelling, and
listening.
Activity #7 – Scavenger Hunt (p.13)
Time: 15-20 minutes
Location: Walk from Willow Shelter to tree stump or Sign #7
Activity:
 Students will be divided up into groups with chaperones and their teachers.
 Each group will be given a camera provided from the school. (Plano ISD)
 Have chaperones take a picture of all students in their group before taking
any other pictures
o Maximum of 20 pictures*
 Students will actively look for things on their scavenger hunt sheet.
o They will write/draw what they found on scavenger hunt sheet.
o Go over the scavenger hunt list before they start the hunt. They will
participate in the hunt from the perspective of their pre-selected
animal.
Discuss with groups about what has been found and how it pertains to
the scavenger hunt
*Pictures are emailed to schools where students use them to make a “chart” of
what they discovered on the scavenger hunt. They need to be familiar with their
pictures.
o
Activity #8 – Man and the Environment (p.14)
Time: 10 minutes
Location: Behind Cabins or Sign #8
Activity:
 Discuss pros and cons of Man and the Environment. Have the students list
ways that man impacts the environment on the chart. How does man impact
the environment positively and negatively?
 Discuss renewable and non-renewable resources
o Renewable resources
 Solar Radiation
 Tides (Water tides)
 Winds
 Geothermal
 Trees
 Animals
 Water
 Oxygen
 Fruit and vegetables
o Non-renewable resources
 Fossil Fuels: Coal, natural gas, diesel
 Minerals: copper (or anything you mine for)
Reflections (p.15)
These pages are at the back of each section of the journal. These are simply
“reflection” questions that the students will answer on their own time (either at the
cabins or back at school). OE staff are not required to go over these questions with
students, but it’s a good idea to remind them to answer the questions on their own.