5
6. The game begins when all players line up behind their respective line, backs to backs. With all students making
their chosen sign, there should be some variety shown for food, water, and shelter. Later on in the game students
might strategize and make only a certain sign, which is fine but don’t encourage it. If students switching their
signs mid round could be a problem, then tokens, bandannas, or colored sheets of paper could be grabbed at the
beginning of each round representing a different sign.
7. When the students are ready, say “Wild Wapiti!” Each student turns around to face the opposite group,
continuing to hold their signs clearly.
8. When an elk sees the matching sign it is looking for (i.e. the elk has his/her hands covering their mouth then
they would be looking for a person from the other group holding their hands over their mouth representing water),
they should run to that person and “capture” the matching element. The sign has to be held until the elk reaches
the matching person. Capturing a component is equal to an elk drinking water, eating food, or finding shelter. Thus
the elk is able to reproduce, and would be encourage to make a bugle mating call (you could play a clip for an
example found at
. If two elk go for the same component
the elk who reaches that component first gets to “consume” it. If a habitat component is not consumed that person
stays where they are holding up their sign and can change signs next round. The “consumed” component and elk
head back to the elk line and the component then becomes an elk looking for another component next round.
9. Record the number of elk at the beginning and end of each round. Play for about fifteen rounds.
10. When the game is called off, discuss what happened during the activity. How did the herd of elk change through
the game? How did the habitat components change as the elk population changed?
11. See if students have any hypothesizes about how the elk population fluctuated throughout the game (see if a
student would volunteer drawing a general line showing their hypothesis on the board). Record the data from
each round. Each round represents one year. Then have students graph the results.
WRAP-UP
12. Possible discussion questions for students to summarize what they learned include:
• What do animals need to survive?
• How do these components influence carrying capacity?
• What are some of the different limiting factors that could effect a population of animals?
• How do these factors affect competition within a species, for example what would one animal have to do in order
to make sure his/her “neighbor” didn’t get all the food?
• Is nature ever really in balance or are ecological systems constantly changing?
Activity adapted from Mount Rainer National Park:
Mount Rainier National Park offers curriculum-based educational programs for school groups interested
in a field trip experience in the park. For more information: contact
Fawn Bauer
at
360.569.6591
or
