Lesson Plan: Quick-Frozen Critters

Subject: Science
Grade: 8th
Objective:
Students will:
Describe adaptations related to predator and prey relationships
Explain the importance of adaptations in predator and prey
relationships
Describe how predator and prey relationships limit wildlife
populations
TEKS:
(11) Organisms and environments. The student knows that
interdependence occurs among living systems and the environment
and that human activities can affect these systems. The student is
expected to:
(A) Describe producer/consumer, predator/prey, and
parasite/host relationships as they occur in food webs within
marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems;
(B) Investigate how organisms and populations in an
ecosystem depend on and may compete for biotic and abiotic
factors such as quantity of light, water, range of temperatures,
or soil composition;
(C) Explore how short- and long-term environmental changes
affect organisms and traits in subsequent populations
Materials:
Food tokens (pieces of poster or cardboard), enough for three per students;
vests or other labeling devices to mark predators; four or five hula hoops to
serve as cover markers; pencil and paper to record number of captures, if
desired.

Procedures:
Teacher will begin the lesson by reviewing key terms: predator, prey, and
limiting factors, and adaptations.
1. Identify students as either predators or prey for a version of
freeze tag with approximately one predator for every four to six
prey.
2. Teacher needs to use a playing area large enough so youth have lots of
room to run, such as a basketball court or gym. Identify one end of the
play area as the food source. Spread the food tokens out here.
Designate the opposite end of the play area as the shelter. Place five
hula hoops in between. These areas will be cover (safe areas) for the
prey.
3. The task of the prey is to collect a food token by moving from the
shelter area to the food source area and then back to the shelter area to
eat it without getting captured by a predator. Prey must eat a total of
three food tokens each round to survive; however, they prey can only
pick up one token at a time. The prey has two ways to prevent being
caught by predators. They may freeze any time a predator is within
five feet. Frozen prey may blink but should not move or speak,
otherwise predators may capture them. The prey can also run to cover
(at least one foot must be within the hula hoop.) Only one prey is
allowed in a hula hoop at a time.
4. Predators capture prey by tagging them when they are not frozen, in a
cover circle or in shelter. Once a predator captures a prey, he or she
leads the prey off the play area and takes the red bandanna from their
victim. A captured prey may not re-enter the game during this round.
Predators must capture at least two red bandannas each round to
survive.
5. The teacher needs to set a time limit of 5 to 7 minutes for each round
of the game. The prey needs to be reminded that they can remain
frozen for as long as they like, but if they do not have enough food at
the end of the activity, they will starve to death.
6. Play four rounds.
The teacher then discusses with students the ways they escaped capture
when they were prey. Which ways were easiest? Which were most effective?
What means did they use as predators to capture prey? Which ways were
best? What did the predators do in response to a prey animal that froze? In
what ways are adaptations important to both predator and prey? The teacher
needs to ask the students to summarize what they have learned about
predator and prey relationships. How do predator and prey relationships
serve as natural limiting factors that affect wildlife?

Evaluation or Assessment:
The teacher will assess the students by reviewing their answers to questions.
The teacher will also assess the students responses on their assessment sheet
that they completed in class and/or for homework. Assignment sheet is
attached.

Closing:
After the students have shared their conclusions, the teacher will lead the
class in a discussion regarding the importance of adaptations to both
predators and prey. The students need to gain insight into limiting factors
that affect wildlife populations. The students, on an index card, will write
one thing that they have learned in class today. This will be their exit ticket
and they will be able to leave class once they have given the teacher their
ticket.

Name:___________________

Quick-Frozen Critters

Round #

# of Prey

# of
Predators

1
2
3
4
Analysis:
Make a graph of your data and attach it to this sheet. Answer the
questions that follow.

1. How did prey escape capture? Which methods were the

most effective and why?

2. What did predators do in response to a prey that froze?

3. After playing the game for a while, how did you change
your strategies to better survive?

4. Choose any predator and its prey. Describe each animals

adaptations.

5. What are some ways that humans have altered the

number of predators in the real world? How would
changing the number of predators change the survival
situation for prey? How would this then affect the survival
strategy for predators?

6. What are some ways that humans have altered the

number of prey in the real world? How does this change
the survival rate for predators? How does that then
change the survival rate for prey?

Works Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2014, from
http://www.khsapes.com/bio/unit1/QuickFrozenCritters2012.pdf
(2012). Quick-Frozen Critters. In ProjectWild (pp. 122-124). Houston: Council for
Environmental Education.