This activity is part of the Detours and Distractions: How Humans Impact Migration Patterns unit.

 
l. Spark student interest in animal migration by teasing the Human Impacts Photo Gallery.

• Place the images from the Human Impacts Photo Gallery around the perimeter of the classroom.
• Ask students to look at the images, then elicit their ideas about what they think the topic of discussion is, based on these photos.
• Establish that the topic is animal migration, and elicit students’ background knowledge. Ask:
• What is animal migration?
• Why do you think animals need to migrate?
• What animals do you know that migrate?
• What problems do you think migrating animals could encounter?
• To confirm and extend students’ prior knowledge, project and read aloud the Migration encyclopedic entry.

• Project the photograph of the wind turbine from the Human Impacts Photo Gallery for students to see. Hide the image caption.
• Have students think-pair-share to discuss how wind turbines could be impacting animal migration and to discuss their responses to the image.
• Ask the class:
• Why are wind turbines important? (Possible responses: They provide a cost-effective, clean, sustainable source of energy.)
• How can wind turbines be deadly? (Possible responses: Turbines can kill migrating birds, bats, and insects, as well as animals on the ground).
• To build on students’ responses, reveal the image caption for all students to see, and read aloud.

• Direct students’ attention again to the Human Impacts Photo Gallery hanging around the classroom. Emphasize that students’ perspectives about the photos will likely change or expand over the course of the unit.
• Distribute a supply of two different colors of sticky notes to each student. Mention to students that the completed sticky notes will be kept and reused later in the unit.
• Explain the activity:
• Sticky note color number one: Students will examine each photograph in the gallery walk and answer the following question on their sticky note: What is depicted in the photograph (e.g., highway) and how might it impact a migrating animal? They should stick their note on the wall next to the photograph.
• Sticky note color number two: Next, direct students to revisit the gallery walk and read the captions on the underside of the photographs. On this sticky note, students should record their responses to the images after reading the captions. Again, students should stick their notes on the wall next to the photograph.
• Bring students back together as a class and invite volunteers to share their ideas and feelings about each photograph.
• Keep the sticky notes associated with their respective image, as they will be reused later in the unit.

• Drawing on the gallery walk and students’ reactions to the images, elicit student responses to the unit driving question: How can we help solve the problems faced by animals on the move?
• After a few volunteers have shared, introduce students to the unit project: Student groups will create a multilayered paper map that shows a particular animal’s migration pattern, how its migration is impacted by humans, ecosystem effects of migration, and recommended solutions to mitigate human impacts on migration. Explain that students will also present an argument supported by empirical evidence to convince stakeholders to implement recommended solutions. 
• Encourage students to pair up and explain to each other what they need to do to have a successful unit project.
• As a class, create a Know & Need to Know chart based on students’ understanding and questions about the unit. This will develop a sense of ownership and help guide student work over the course of the unit.
• Use the process below to elicit students’ ideas and questions related to the unit, which can be revisited over time. Record students’ responses and display them in the classroom.
• Ask students to discuss the following questions with a partner and then share their responses with the class:
• What do we already know about animal migration and how humans impact it?
• What do we need to know about animal migration in order to create a map that shows how humans impact animal migration?

• Consider ideas for students to take additional action after the unit concludes to continue momentum toward helping end negative human impacts on animal migration and extend the impacts of their project work into the local or global community. Ideas for further action include:
• Identify local migratory organisms. Create a backyard “pit stop” for the most vulnerable organisms, such as a bat box or specific native flowering plants.
• Author a class letter to Congress, local government, or a local business to encourage an animal migration solution (e.g., building a wildlife crossing bridge, installing a culvert). Students can submit copies of their maps and presentations as evidence.
• Download the Animal Tracker app or eBird app and follow and add to scientific knowledge about migrating animals through student citizen science field work.

This activity is part of the Detours and Distractions: How Humans Impact Migration Patterns unit.
 
l. Build on students’ existing knowledge of animal migration by watching six short video clips and completing an accompanying handout.

• Distribute the Migration Cues handout to each student.
• Read the directions aloud and allow students time to read the handout and ask any questions.
• Encourage students to complete the handout as they watch these six short video clips from Great Migrations:
• Wildebeest Migration             
• Red Crab Mothers                 
• Red Crab Eggs           
• Sperm Whale Migration         
• Monarch Migration               
• Plankton Light Show              
• Allow additional time to complete the handout.
• After the video clips, invite volunteers to share their answers with the class. Supplement their responses with the answers from the Migration Cues Answer Key and with additional questions to prompt student thinking, such as:
• Do the animals all use the same cues to trigger their migration? Explain. (Possible responses: No. They use different combinations of internal and external cues, depending on their environments and what they have to do to meet their survival needs: air, water, food, and the ability to reproduce, as well as environmental conditions such as day length and temperature.)
• Why do you think more than one thing triggers migration? (Possible responses: Animals that migrate are not able to get all their survival needs met by staying in one location, and may need to move to find suitable conditions for breeding or nesting. Animals are diverse and have evolved with varying capabilities to survive, have different senses and modes of locomotion, and different needs.)
• Collect the Migration Cues handout upon completion or at the end of the activity.

• Distribute the What Do You Know About Migration Methods? handout to each student. This informal quiz introduces students to different migration methods and allows them to choose if each method is used by humans, animals, or by both. Students may complete it individually or in groups.
• When individual students or small groups have completed the quiz, ask them to join with another student or group to share and discuss answers. Encourage students to ask for and provide reasoning to back up their answers.
• Regroup for a class discussion and invite students to share answers. Supplement students' answers with information from the resources provided in the Background & Vocabulary tab.
• Collect the What Do You Know About Migration Methods? handout upon completion or at the end of the activity.

• Revisit the class Know & Need to Know chart from the Collision! Human Impacts on Animal Migration activity. Ask students to add to the chart by asking the following questions:
• What do we already know about animal migration? (Possible responses: animals move from place to place, animals live parts of their lives in different places, animals move during different seasons or when they need to find mates)
• What do we already know about which animals migrate? (Possible responses: monarch butterfly, birds going south for the winter, whales)
• What do we already know about why animals migrate? (Possible responses: to find food, to find mates, to stay warm)
• What do we already know about how animals migrate? (Possible responses: using their senses (eyes, nose, ears), following others, remembering the way, magnetic field of the earth)
• What do we need to know?

• Project the Migrating Animal Collage to introduce the 12 animals students can study; this visual input will help students make their decisions on the exit ticket.
• Distribute the Choose Your Migrating Animal exit ticket, which includes a list of the animals students can choose from for their unit project.
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
• Reindeer (caribou) (Rangifer tarandus)
• Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)
• Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
• Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
• Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
• Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
• White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
• Globe skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens)
• Sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis)
• Canada goose (Branta canadensis)
• Painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui)
• Ask each student to complete the exit ticket by listing the top three animals they would be interested in studying throughout the unit and why. Explain that students will be grouped together based on interest. Project groups should have three to four students; each group will study a different animal.

This activity is part of the Detours and Distractions: How Humans Impact Migration Patterns unit.
 
1.   Assign student groups to a focal animal for their unit project.

• Group students together based on their interest in one of the following animals, as recorded on their Choose Your Migrating Animal exit ticket completed during the Why and How Animals Migrate activity:
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
• Reindeer (caribou) (Rangifer tarandus)
• Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)
• Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
• Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
• Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
• Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
• White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
• Globe skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens)
• Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis)
• Canada goose (Branta canadensis)
• Painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui)
• Explain that over the course of the remainder of the unit, each group will create a paper map highlighting their animal’s migration route, research how its migration is impacted by humans, identify how its migration affects its ecosystem(s), and develop solutions to the human impacts. 

• Elicit students’ background understanding of animal tracking. Ask:
• How do you think we know where animals go during migration? (Possible responses: we can follow them, we can track them, drones.) Emphasize that scientists and explorers use a wide variety of methods to track and study animals to understand their migrations.
• Direct project groups to read the What is Animal Tracking? page from Movebank, a free online database of animal tracking data, in order to identify three interesting facts about animal tracking. Then, in a class discussion, have groups share out interesting facts while recording them in a visible place for all to see. 
• Explain the purpose of today’s activity is to:
• Introduce students to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which students will focus on more deeply in a later activity.
• Explore a variety of resources and learn about how different animals are tracked.
• Get comfortable interacting with and interpreting animal migration maps, which students will be making for their unit project.

• Create two lists on the board that are titled “Animal Migration Tracking Methods” and “Animal Migration Maps.” Encourage students to identify the different tracking methods and maps they encounter throughout the activity. As they are addressed during the discussion, record student contributions to the lists on the board.
• As you scroll through the animation, choose students to read text portions aloud as appropriate. As you engage with the content, emphasize the following:
• North American Elk Range: Call attention to the difference between the historic and current elk ranges. Mention that students will be creating a similar multilayered map for their unit project showing the typical migration route and the human interrupted migration route for their project animal.
• Greater Yellowstone Superherd: Ask students to paraphrase the elk’s migration pattern. 
• Winter: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dots represents average elk herd movement in March. Ask students:
• What tracking method is mentioned here? (GPS collar)
• What does this map depict? (Elk herd movements in their winter feeding grounds)
• If needed, prompt students to add the tracking method, the map title, and description to the class list.  
• Spring Migration: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dots represents average elk herd movement between April and August. Ask students:
• What does this map depict? (spring migration, herds moving into the park)
• If needed, prompt students to add the map title and description to the class list.
• Pulse of the Park: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dots represents average elk herd movement between August and January. Ask students:
• What does this map depict? (fall migration, herds moving out of the park when snow begins to fall)
• If needed, prompt students to add the map title and description to the class list.
• Nine Elk Herds: If needed, prompt students to add the map type (migratory routes for nine elk herds) to the class list.
• Who Owns This Land?: Call attention to the different groups of people that own land that the elk migrate through. Ask students:
• What are some impacts to the elk’s migration that might arise on these different kinds of land? (Possible answers: Elk might be hunted if they are on private land, tribal land, or in the wilderness; elk may be impacted by crossing roads, ranching, fencing, and projects that are ongoing on state or local government land.)
• A Single Elk: Explain that the next few maps are a narrowed version of the maps we have already seen that focus on one elk’s (Elk 22) migration journey.
• Winter Range: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dot represents one elk’s movement (Elk 22) between March and May, the winter range.
• Hazardous Return: Call attention to the large number of elk killed by hunters.

• Highlight that students have learned some tracking and mapping techniques for elk migration. Prompt students to consider how well these methods might work for other migrating animals (e.g., their focal animal, small birds, insects, amphibians, aquatic animals, urban wildlife). Do they expect similar or different approaches—and why?
• Explain that project groups will now research different types of animal migration maps, which will prepare them to think more strategically about their culminating project map.
• As groups explore the following resources, encourage group members to work together and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies they learn about, and to add as many methods to the “Animal Migration Tracking Methods” list and as many map names to the “Animal Migration Map” list as they can. If project groups choose to divide the resources between their members, assign at least two of the following to each student or pair to ensure every resource is investigated at least once.
• Butterfly Surveillance video
• Tales of a Tail-Feather video
• Long-distance Ocean Travels maps
• Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators
• Tracking Animal Migrations GeoStory
• Explorer Profile: Brian Kastl
• As groups work, prompt thinking with questions like these to remind students to keep their unit project in mind: 
• What tracking methods are most appropriate for animals of different sizes?
• Which type of map is best suited to track animal migration by air, land, and sea?

• Consider again ideas for students to take additional action after the unit concludes, to continue momentum toward helping end negative human impacts on animal migration and extend the impacts of their project work into the local or global community.
• Gauge student interest and feasibility of conducting different courses of action.
• Identify local migratory organisms. Create a backyard “pit stop” for the most vulnerable—such as a bat box or specific native flowering plants.
• Author a class letter to Congress, local government, or a local business to encourage an animal migration solution (e.g., building a wildlife crossing bridge). Students can submit copies of their maps and presentations as evidence.
• Download the Animal Tracker app or eBird app and follow and add to scientific knowledge about migrating animals through student citizen science field work.