Interrupted Migrations Unit Driving Question: How can human activities help or hinder animal migrations?

Mapping Migratory Routes Lesson Driving Question: How do migratory animals move throughout the world?

1.     Prepare students to think like game designers.

• As a class, revisit the goals of the final project: creating a tabletop game that will raise awareness about animal migration and inspire people to care about human impacts on migratory routes. Ask students: What have we created so far that can be used for your game? (Answers: Human impact cards, the start to a geographic game board map, and a description of the setting).
• In this activity, students create critter cards that can be the characters in their game and a map of each critter’s migratory route that will go with their setting descriptions. These maps will inform stylized sections on students’ game boards.
• For example, migratory routes might be portrayed as a series of spaces for pieces to move along.   

• Ask: What other components are often included in tabletop games besides a board, cards, and a setting? (Possible answers: dice, spinner, player pieces)
• Encourage students to think about what else will help create an engaging and inspiring game.

2. Guide student research of migratory species in each group’s focal geographic area.

• Distribute a copy of the Creating the Critter Cards handout to each group and have each group create a set of three critter cards that relate to their geographic area. 
• Prepare the class for the research process by first reading the directions on Creating the Critter Cards together.
• Support students in starting their online research by giving them suggestions for search terms from the critter card directions (see “Tips” section for additional support for research).
• Introduce students to the National Geographic Photo Ark and model how to search for an animal, such as the Atlantic loggerhead turtle, and use the information provided to develop a critter card (note: not all animals listed will be found in the Photo Ark).
• Each group will be researching three species; ask groups: What will be the best collaborative approach to accomplish this task?

• As students are creating their critter cards, circulate to remind groups of the required project components and encourage students to make connections by using the following prompts: 
• Prompt for animal and regional habitat description: Tell me a little about your animal and where it lives. 
• Prompt for explanations of why and how their animal migrates: Why does your animal need to migrate? How do they get from point A to point B and back again?
• Additional questions to ask students: 
• What are some of the biggest human threats to your animal? Why? 
• What is the status of the species? Are there healthy populations or is the species endangered? Why?  

• At the end of the activity, collect the student-created critter cards for informal assessment. 

3.     Guide groups to create a migratory route map for each animal.

• Distribute a copy of the Migration Route Map to each group. This initial migratory mapping will lead to the future design of each group’s game board.
• Have each group use their research findings to draw and label the migratory route of each of their focal species on the map. Each migration route should include:
• Starting point, labeled with when the migration begins.
• Path of migration, labeled with the animal, the type of migration, and reason for migration.
• Ending point, labeled with when the migration ends.

4. Revisit the class Know and Need to Know chart.

• Discuss the following questions as a class:
• What answers were we able to find today?
• What new questions do we have based on what we learned?

• Explain that in the next activity students will be applying their research to their game designs.