Nature Net’s Pre- and Post-Field Trip Materials
Subject: Prairie
Level: Elementary School
Introduction
Prairies (the French word for meadow) are landscapes truly dominated by grasses. They arise where the climate is too dry to support forests yet too wet to favor deserts. The dominion of the grasses is maintained over time by a dynamic combination of forces: periodic drought, grazing pressures, and wildfires (which some Native Americans called "the red buffalo"). There are three main sub-types of prairie found in the U.S.A. Shortgrass prairie was common around the western side of the Great Plains. The eastern side of the Great Plains, including southern Wisconsin, supported the tallgrass prairie, characterized by Indian Grass, Big Bluestem, and switchgrass. In a good year these grasses reached as high as a rider on horseback! In between was the mixed-grass prairie, with shortgrasses on the dry patches, tallgrasses on the wet ones, and mid-sized species throughout. Prairies are a central part of Wisconsin’s natural heritage, and they are critical in understanding the history of our state.
Vocabulary
Grass: a plant with long narrow leaves, parallel veins and small, inconspicuous flowers
Forb: non-woody ("herbaceous") plants that flower
Disturbance: an event in time that disrupts an ecosystem and changes it (for instance by affecting population structure, resource availability, the physical environment, etc.)
Aridity: environmental condition in which there is limited moisture, generally high temperatures and strong winds. Many prairies undergo seasonal aridity.
Erosion: loss of soil due to weathering or other environmental or human-induced processes. Prairie grasses and forbs have roots that bind the soil and prevent erosion.
Adaptation: a change in the form or function of an organism that helps it survive in its environment.
Concepts
Plant and animal communities in prairies are adapted to undergo seasonal stresses, particularly aridity and fire. Prairie grasses and forbs tend to have deep tap roots, and can store moisture for extended periods. Grasses grow from the base of the stem, not the tip (as most other plants do) which allows them to easily regenerate after fires, grazing and other disturbances. It is also why grass grows back after you mow it!
Large grazing animals flourish on prairie vegetation, especially grasses. Before the 1830’s bison roamed Wisconsin’s prairies. Smaller prairie mammals requiring less space still thrive on existing prairie remnants (voles, mice, ground squirrels, etc.). Many are burrowing animals, which foster plant growth as they churn up the soil.
Prairies once occupied an estimated 400 million acres of North America (U.S. and Canada). It was the continent’s largest continuous ecosystem, and the one most characteristic of the U.S. When Europeans settled in the prairies, they quickly learned it was ideal agricultural land and converted it for farming purposes. Now prairie is the rarest and most fragmented type of ecosystem. Not a single patch contains its original migratory fauna, making it already - to a troubling degree - functionally extinct. There is growing interest in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest to preserve what remains of native prairie in this country and restore what we can.
Pre-Trip Activities
Learn about prairie plants by playing a prairie plant matching game: cut out pictures of various prairie flowers, then create descriptions for them (color, smell, feel, what the name means, human uses, other interesting info) and ask children to match descriptions with pictures. Do as a handout or in small groups. Ask students to estimate prairie conditions: amount of sunlight, wind conditions, seasonal temperature above and below ground, water availability. Discuss fire as a major force in formation and maintenance of a prairie. Guide the class through an exercise in using imagination to create the "ideal prairie plant" (with adaptations to prairie conditions). Read and discuss Laura Ingalls’ wonderful books on Midwestern prairie life in the 1800’s.
Field Trip Activities
Ask students to sit or lay down and listen to the sounds of the prairie. What can they identify? What can’t they identify? Where are the sounds coming from? Who is making them? Why? Prairie scavenger hunt: in the prairie, have students explore within 10 steps of a central location. Find: 5 different plants, 10 insects, evidence of 5 kinds of birds and 3 kinds of mammals, several different colors of flowers, a flower turning to seed (or various stages). You can make a checklist to hand out. Together, have each student tell one thing they found that wasn’t mentioned by the group before. Lots of life! Ask students to pick a spot that feels good or special to them, and to go there. Give them paper and colors to draw and/or write about what they see and feel (quiet time). Let them explore, or lay down, or whatever they are inclined to do - just be there for some quiet personal time.
Post-Trip Activities
Play the web of life game: ask each student to represent a critter or plant that lives on, or affects the prairie (make sure a diversity of elements are included, as well as humans). This could even be based on individual research projects by students studying different organisms in prairies. Start at the bottom of a food chain, and ask each student to connect to the growing "web" based on interactions their critter or plant has with another. Use string as the connecting element. When all the students are connected, pull the line and ask students to raise their hand if you feel them pulling. Discuss the meaning of the connections, and the notion of natural systems. You can enrich the demonstration by pretending there is a natural or a man-made event, and discussing questions like: who would be most affected and why? How far would the impacts reach? What would happen if some connections were cut? Etc… Then, use students’ research projects to create a mural of a prairie. ALSO: Get involved in a prairie restoration, and prairie stewardship! Create your own prairie patch on your school’s grounds. Monitor and keep consistent records of it. Research the ways Indians used to live on the prairies, and how they adapted their lifestyles of this ecosystem.
Web Sites Offering More Cool Ideas
http://www.nwf.org/backyard/ - the National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat Program. A site that gets you started on building a prairie on school grounds.
http://uwarboretum.org - The University of Wisconsin Arboretum: check out their links to related sites, many are great prairie resources.
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/nature/habitat/whatprai.htm - Good, basic info on Wisconsin prairies. Also links to wildlife and plant species common in prairies.