Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge - Field Trip Activities

Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge
Field Trip Activities

This is a list of activities school groups are able to participate in during field trips to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. Spend some time looking through these activities and choose activities which are appropriate for your class. We want to meet your curriculum needs so if you cannot find an appropriate activity listed below please contact Sara Hollerich at (515) 994-3400 and speak to her about how the staff can help meet your needs.

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

Field Trip Program's National Science Standards Matrix

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

New Programs

Adopt-a-trail – Students schools will adopt a piece of the prairie on the overlook trail. Each year photos will be taken of their site, students will weed their plot, plant new seeds or seedlings in their plot, and watch as their plot develops to a healthy prairie through the years. This is an inquiry based activity. Plants can be provided to classrooms to grow before they come out to the refuge. Arrangements must be made for this in January or February as the plants must have a good root system to survive. (Available in the spring and fall but plants grown at school are only available in the spring.)

Going Batty - Students will learn about the types of bats that live in Iowa, what they eat and how they hunt. Myths about bats will be explored and the truth uncovered.

Birds Schmirds - Students will understand what makes birds different from other animals, learn some common bird sounds, where to find birds, and what birds eat based on the type of beak they have.

You Animal! - The students listen to a presenter speak about the animals of the area, what they eat, and some general facts about the animal. Skins will be presented for the students to touch. Skulls will be presented for the students to view.

Popular Programs

Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam - Students will learn about the American buffalo and the tallgrass prairie. The activity also covers how the Plains Indians used the bison and the bison’s family structure.

Buffalo Hoops - Students will learn about what happened to the bison in North America by playing a game similar to musical chairs. (Ties in very well with “Give me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam”).

Buffalo Hunt - Students will learn the four components of habitat and how they affect animals. They will learn the importance of having the habitat components in correct proportions. They will learn what "limiting factors" are and how they affect animal populations.

Sticky Situations - The students collect different types of seeds by hiking through the prairie, during hikes, games, or stewardship activates. The seeds stick to leggings made of different types of furs. The seeds will be collected from the leggings and grouped by type. The students will use a bar graph, to graph and discuss what the information could mean to scientists studying animals. (Note: This is best done in the fall.)

Seed Olympics - Using a variety of materials, the students will develop a seed dispersal device. The travel of the seed will be measured by distance and accuracy.

Soil Builders - Students participate in a group play in which they act out the components of soil formation.

Other Programs

Prairie Explorers Kit - This is an activity that will help students sharpen their observational skills and serve as a simple introduction to the term properties in relationship to science, as well as introduce them to plants on the prairie. (Pre-work is involved in this activity.)

What Is the "Wheel" Identity of This Plant? - Students use an identification wheel to help them recognize prairie plants.

Prairies Have A Lot of Gall . . . - Students will search and count goldenrod galls in an area of the prairie. A count will be taken. The students will then predict how many goldenrod plants with galls will be found in a larger prairie area by extrapolating. (This is best done in the fall or winter.)

Prairie Plants Change - Through seasonal visits to the prairie students will observe and record the various changes that prairie plants go through each season.

Keep on Trackin’ - Students will become sufficiently familiar with evidence of wildlife to be able to identify and collect a few animal tracks common to prairie wildlife. This is best done in winter with snow or in other times of the year after rainfall or along a creek or pond.

Camouflage Game - The students will play a game (outside in the tallgrass) that will help them understand how camouflage helps animals to survive.

Create-an-Animal - Students will learn about the adaptations animals need to have to survive on the prairie. They will then draw their own animal, thinking about where the animal lives, how it eats, and how it escapes predators.

Identify-an-Invertebrate – Students will learn the difference between insects, spiders, and other invertebrates.

Prairie Acrobats - Students learn about spiders and other arachnids - characteristics, habits, and habitats through discussion and observation of spiders and harvestmen (daddy-longlegs which are not actually spiders) on the prairie.

Birds and Worms – Students will understand how camouflage works by hunting for “worms” of different colors that are hiding on different color backgrounds, collecting data, and then comparing the numbers “worms” caught of different colors.

Prairie Artistry - Students look for elements of design on the prairie and create an art work emphasizing one of these elements.

Prairie Celebrations - Following the reading of Byrd Baylor’s, I’m in Charge of Celebrations, students develop celebrations of their own centering on the prairie.

Prairie Poetry - Students will experience a walk on the prairie and use their observations as the inspiration for a poem to be written in one of the forms presented by the teacher.

Myth Making - Students will observe constellations (or cloud formations) and interpret them into their own myths.

Dreamweavers - Students listen to the story of the dream catcher, then design a dream catcher of their own out of willow branches, imitation sinew, feathers, and beads.

Prairie Smoke - Students listen to legends about prairie plants or animals and then create stories of their own based on observations of characteristics of the plants or animals.

Bison / Elk Department Store - The students will study the importance of bison and elk to the prairie ecosystem and human inhabitants through: (1) observation of their use and impact on the prairie, (2) study of related literature and (3) knowledge gained and experiences with construction of useful items from bison and elk contributions (elements).

As The Wheel Turns - While walking in the prairie, the students will keep track of how far they have traveled by using a trundle wheel.

Prairie Playtime - Students will work in small groups to create games using the resources available on the prairie. They will share the games with the rest of the group.

What’s That? - The students will examine and try to identify the use of different objects found in a trunk which may have been used by an early pioneer on the prairie.

So, You Want to be a Prairie Partner - Through an interview session with a Neal Smith NWR biologist, students will become aware of the various job responsibilities and the importance of the National Wildlife Refuge in relationship to restoration and preservation of habitats with emphasis on prairie.

From Trash to Treasure - Students will learn about how litter affects wildlife and how recycling helps reduce waste.

Food Web - Students will look for signs of animal and plant life on the prairie. They will then construct food chains or webs with those species.

There Goes the Neighborhood - A new species is introduced into the prairie ecosystem. Students determine whether or not that species would be able to survive and/or adapt, as well as the effect it could have on native species.

Web of Life - Using a ball of string and labeled cards of certain animals, students will be able to set-up a “web of life”.

Curious About Clouds - Students will use their knowledge of the various types of clouds to construct a cloud diagram. They will also use their knowledge of clouds to forecast weather and infer how different types of weather effected pioneers, Indians, and animals on the prairie.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL

New Programs

Adopt-a-trail – Students schools will adopt a piece of the prairie on the overlook trail. Each year photos will be taken of their site, students will also take an inventory of the plants found in their plot with a ranger help, students will weed their plot, plant new seeds or seedlings in their plot, and watch as their plot develops to a healthy prairie through the years. This is an inquiry based activity. Plants can be provided to classrooms to grow before they come out to the refuge. Arrangements must be made for this in January or February as the plants must have a good root system to survive. (Available in the spring and fall but plants grown at school are only available in the spring.)

Ant Research– New this year! Students will learn all about ants then use their newly learned information to set up transects and collect ant specimens that will be sent in for identification. Students will use science based inquiry and actual research techniques to help refuge biologists discover new ant species on the refuge. This program may require some travel away from the building so a bus will need to be onsite the entire day.

Going Batty - Students will learn about the types of bats that live in Iowa, what they eat and how they hunt. Myths about bats will be explored and the truth uncovered.

Popular Programs

Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam - Students will learn about the American buffalo and the tallgrass prairie. The activity also covers how the Plains Indians used the bison and the bison’s family structure.

Seed Olympics - Using a variety of materials, the students will develop a seed dispersal device. The travel of the seed will be measured by distance and accuracy.

Other Programs

Soil Profiles - Students will take soil probes in a variety of locations, measure and observe the horizon coloration and texture differences of each probe.

Wet and Wild at Walnut Creek - This activity allows students to investigate the life in a pond with hands-on netting and identification of aquatic life. The students will determine how these animals fit into a food web.

Water-Logged - Your class will soon be taking a field trip to study the watershed of a small prairie lake, pond, or stream. On your field trip you will be measuring certain chemical aspects of the water to determine if the water is polluted or pure. These are: (1) the oxygen dissolved in the water, (2) the pH of the water and (3) the temperature of the water.

Down the Stream - This activity leads students to calculate stream flow and to speculate how it might affect life downstream.

Hoopin’ It Up on the Prairie - Cooperative groups of students will randomly select a small area of prairie by throwing a hula hoop on the ground and then categorizing the number of plant and animal species found in the study plot formed by the hoop.

Plant Galls – Students will search the prairie and savanna for different types of plant galls. Galls can be sketched and with special permission may be collected and taken back to school to watch for emerging insects. (This is an inquiry, science-based activity where the students will collect field data for refuge scientists, a classroom visit may required over the winter to help students sample and preserve specimens. This is a fall or winter activity.) This is a new programs and only one school will help out with the pilot program in 2006.

Biodiversity on de cline - Each student will make simple clinometers to be used to determine if various elevations are related to specific forms of prairie life.

Gold Dust - Participants will become aware of sources of pollen, its different sizes, shapes and colors and will note how pollen is transferred. They will view various structures of pollen transporters.

What Is the "Wheel" Identity of This Plant? - Students use an identification wheel to help them recognize prairie plants.

The Write Stuff - Students will practice field observations and record keeping.

Patterns on the Prairie - Through a walk on the prairie, students will develop an awareness of patterns found in various prairie plants. They will investigate and record observations as they look for patterns in nature.

Prairie Birds - Sights and Songs - Students will tour the refuge observing birds. They will practice bird watching techniques (binocular skills, visual and sound identification, behavior and habitat associations). NOTE: Early morning is best for this activity.

Signs of Life - This activity allows students to see the signs made by animals on the prairie that may not be active at the time of their visit. These animals can then be categorized into habitat types and classified by the diet they eat.

What’s Bugging You? - The students will use sweep nets to collect various species of insects from five specific habitat areas on the Refuge. The areas are: open prairie, near the creek, near a pond, a marshy area, and the area near a savanna.

Web Weaving - Students will locate and observe spiders, their webs and feeding habits in a prairie setting.

Home is Where You Hang Your Habitat - Students become another animal and search for their ideal habitat.

Prairie Pantry - Actions of prairie critters will be observed and related to food chains. The interactions of food chains will show the interconnectedness of prairie animals.

Mapping the Prairie - Students will map a study site of the prairie and will become familiar with using and reading map symbols.

Old Bones in the Prairie - The students will excavate a buried skeleton from a sand pit. They will learn about archeological techniques, skeletal articulation, and skeletal anatomy. They will also learn more about the bison that inhabited Iowa’s prairies. Upper grade classes may choose to measure bone locations while excavating. Archeozoology is the study of animals in an archeological context.

Come and Live in the Beautiful Prairie - After reading or hearing selected readings about prairie, and taking a guided hike through the prairie, the students will use writing skills, art, role play, or group discussion to imagine a little of what the pioneers experienced in traveling across the Iowa prairies.

Bur Oak of the Savanna - Students will write an essay from the tree’s perspective and what the tree may have experienced in the past and/or is experiencing in the present.

Prairie Propaganda - Students will design an advertisement for some aspect of the prairie (i.e. prairie plants, oak trees, rich soils, animal life, virtues of homesteading). Then create a commercial that will sell your product to other audiences.

I Can Make the Difference - Prairie participants will actively participate in a stewardship project.

Prairie Scavengers - The students will participate in a scavenger hunt in which they will be placing colored flags along the trail where they have found actual objects or processes naturally occurring in nature.

Border Disputes - Students will explore the prairie and investigate the environmental factors that affect and determine community. They will look for differences in plant and animal communities where different environmental factors exist.

Succession Procession - A hike along a prairie savanna trail will provide participants the opportunity to observe successional changes.

Burning Questions - Participants will recognize some of the effects of fire on the prairie. They will explore the vegetation, wildlife and soil of burned and non-burned areas.

Deadly Prairie Links - Participants simulate a food chain where human interference through use of pesticides affects the continuation of the food chain. High physical involvement.

Prairie Ramble - Participants will have the opportunity to observe the prairie from a variety of perspectives and note inter-relationships of plants and animals.

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HIGH SCHOOL

New Programs

Ant Research – New this year! Students will learn all about ants then use their newly learned information to set up transects and collect ant specimens that will be sent in for identification. Students will use science based inquiry and actual research techniques to help refuge biologists discover new ant species on the refuge. This program may require some travel away from the building so a bus will need to be onsite the entire day.

Popular Programs

Other Programs

Profiles of Soil - Using exposed areas along creek beds, hillsides or a soil pit (or the remains of a soil probe test), students will determine the physical characteristics of soil in a given area [prairie (remnant or restored), disturbed area, savanna or woodlot].

Splish Splash - Students observe erosive effects of artificial rain (falling water) upon soil of various sites: prairie remnants/restored, woodlot/savanna, disturbed/agriculture land.

Plants Lunch - Students collect topsoil and /or subsoil and analyze soil samples from disturbed, prairie (remnant and / or restored), and savanna or woodlot.

Soil Texture Analysis and Physical Properties - Students will gain a better working understanding of soil types and related physical properties which affect the growth of prairie species through a hands on series of mini activities. Students will determine various soil’s textures by using the textural triangle and ribbon testing.

Estimating Soil Erosion - Students will travel to specific spots on the refuge (row crop, prairie, etc.) And collect data such as slope length and gradient. They will then return to a computer to calculate soil erosion using the Jasper county soil survey report and the Universal Soil Loss Equation.

Walnut Creek Stream Quality - Physical and Chemical Analysis - Students survey a stream’s physical features, including: color, turbidity, width, depth, velocity, and temperature. They’ll also compare water tests at two different sites as Walnut Creek enters and leaves the Refuge and record the results on the Refuge database.

Walnut Creek Stream Quality - Creatures of the Creek - Data about the following physical features will be gathered: color, turbidity, width, depth, velocity, and temperature. Investigators will collect organisms from Walnut Creek and identify the aquatic life to determine the condition of the creek using the types of organisms found as an indication of the quality of the water.

Wetlands – Nature’s Water Treatment Plant - Physical and Chemical Analysis - Test the quality of the water that enters the wetland to compare with the quality of the water that leaves the wetland and enters the creek.

Wetlands – Nature’s Water Treatment Plant - Aquatic Invertebrates - Test the quality of the water that enters the wetland to compare with the quality of the water that leaves the wetland and enters the creek by collecting and identifying aquatic invertebrates.

Transect Search - A look at vegetative groups found within a range of selected sites: prairie (remnant / restored), savanna, woodlot or disturbed / agriculture land.

Wildflower Identification - Students observe seasonal wildflowers of the Refuge. The wildflowers found will indicate the quality and quantity of life and the diversity of habitats.

Bur Oak Nursery Seeding - Students will collect bur oak acorns near their home or the oak savanna prairie and plant them in a raised bed tree seedling nursery. As follow-up stewardship activity, students may be able to transplant seedlings from the nursery to an oak savanna prairie area on the Refuge.

Propagation and Research in Outdoor Nurseries - Students will have the opportunity to practice identification of prairie seeds, seedlings, and mature dried plant specimens. In addition, they will be able to propagate prairie seeds in a greenhouse. The major activity will involve students designing an outdoor research nursery bed (6' x 30') experimenting with cover crops, planting density, soil types, spring versus fall seeding, mulching, depth, fertilizer rates, seeding dates, etc., as they work to establish prairie by direct seed planting, greenhouse transplanting, and transplanting starts from established prairies found within or outside the Refuge.

Prairie Seed Germination Experiments - Students will propagate native prairie plants, processing the seeds by four methods to determine which method is the most successful.

Who Lives There? - Organisms are identified in a soil community through observation of several soil samples from different plant communities.

Catch-and-Release Insects - Students observe insect groups found within various plant communities.

Grazing and Insect Population Research - Students will carry out grazing research using American Bison herd enclosure and exclosure areas to calculate grazing area needs and the effects of grazing on insect populations.

Life on the 1800's Iowa Prairie - Through reading personal and other accounts and visiting the Prairie Learning Center, students compose a journal or a diary that could have been written by a young person in Iowa in the 1800's.

Artist’s Eye on the Prairie - Students will visit a prairie area at Neal Smith National wildlife Refuge, and paint and/or photograph a natural prairie scene.

Comparing Prairie and Savanna Communities - Part A: Students will perform a survey of a prairie reconstruction area that is in the early stages of succession (or development into a stable ecosystem) - young prairie and old prairie. Part B: Students conduct two transects on a well established prairie - upland and lowland. Part C: Students conduct two transects through a savanna area.

Seasonal Changes on the Prairie - A Visual Account - Students will use photography or video-taping skills to illustrate the changing images of a natural habitat at different times of the year. They will use the Prairie Learning Center to discover the main characteristics of their particular habitat.

Endangered Species of Today’s Prairies - Students will tour areas evaluating habitat and research endangered and threatened species in Iowa.

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