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?

• Set the stage for this activity by explaining to students that there are different types of animal migration. In the Intersecting Actions activity, students learned about elk migration. Animals migrate for different reasons, across different distances, to different places. Learning about different types of migration will contribute to better game designs.
• With students in their unit working groups, distribute a copy of the Animal Migration Vocabulary handout and scissors to each group. Have students work together in their groups to cut out the squares and match each vocabulary word to its definition.
• Provide support to students in identifying root words and using context clues to understand the definitions.

• Distribute the Match the Animal to its Type of Migration handout to each student. Have students read through the directions and work together in their groups to match each animal in the second column to the migration type in the first column.
• After students have completed the handout, review the answers as a class: (1. c; 2. f; 3. b; 4. h; 5. g; 6. e; 7. d; 8. a) and answer any lingering questions.
• Ask students: How could human activity interfere with one of these types of migrations?
• Have students use their completed Human Impact Cards from the Mapping Human Interruptions to Migration lesson and discuss with their group members. Discuss students' answers as a class.

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.

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. Use the Butterfly Surveillance video to focus groups on game design and the final project.

• Remind students they will be using what they have learned about their focal animals and geographic area to create a game that inspires people to understand and care about animal migration.
• As a class, watch Butterfly Surveillance. Pause the video at 0:47 to bring students’ attention to the migratory map in the video and connect with their game boards.  Ask students to discuss with a neighbor:
• What do you notice about the monarch butterfly's migration route (Possible answers: it spreads out as it goes north, it crosses many regions, it crosses national borders, there are a lot of opportunities for human interruption).
• Watch the rest of the video as a class. Then, have student discuss with a neighbor:
• How does this video make you hopeful about people supporting monarch butterfly migration?
• In this activity, students add the animals’ migratory routes to their game boards. Encourage a persuasive and strategic mindset by discussing the following question as a class:
• What strategies can you use in your game design to convince people to care about the migrating animals in your region? (Possible answers: players take on roles of migrating species, give the animals feelings, have people’s survival depend on the animal’s ability to successfully migrate)

2. Student groups add the migratory routes of their species to their game boards.

• Have students discuss how they want to use the migratory routes in their games. Have groups discuss the following questions and share out their decisions with the class:
• Will the routes be spaces that animals move along?
• How will you balance accurate representation of migratory routes with the way the game is played? (For example, will players have to complete a full life cycle or simply arrive at one destination?)
• How will you make sure that human impacts disrupt or support animal migration in the game?
• Next, have students review their findings from the Researching a Region's Migratory Animals activity and have each group decide how to represent their species’ migratory routes on their game boards. Routes may be fully contained within the area, or they may begin, end, or cross through the area.
• Encourage students to be creative! By thinking about how the migratory routes will be used, they are really thinking about some integral structures for their games.
• Then, have students add the migratory route of their species to their game board that they created in the Map That Game Board activity. Provide materials for creating and illustrating game boards, such as cardboard, colored paper, markers, colored pencils, scissors, and glue.
• As groups are working, circulate to ensure that human developments on their game board contact, or potentially contact, the migratory route of their species.

3. Lead students in a gallery walk of game boards for peer feedback.

• Begin by having groups display their game boards and migratory route maps from the activity Researching a Region's Migratory Animals for students to see as they walk around the room. Before beginning the gallery walk, have each group briefly share the way that migratory routes will be used in their game.
• Then, have students walk around the room providing feedback on sticky notes to each group in response to one or two of the following questions:
• What challenges to the migrations do you predict will result from human developments and geographical features on the game board?
• What geographical information is clearly communicated through the game board about the region? Which features are missing or could be more clearly communicated?
• How clear is the game’s focus on migration? What additions would help clarify the focus?  
• After the gallery walk is complete, have groups read through the sticky notes left by their peers in order to refine their design and game play for their final game design.