Last updated: October 28, 2024
Lesson Plan
A Bear's Menu
Download Lesson Plan
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Grizzly bear
NPS/Jim Peaco
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Math,Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 90 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 6.RP.3.d, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.RST.7
- Additional Standards:
- NGSS: MS-LS2-1 and MS-LS2-4
Essential Question
How do the seasonal feeding habits, seasonal activity, and physical characteristics of bears contribute to their survival? What are some similarities and differences between bears and humans? What role do humans and ecosystems like that in Yellowstone National Park play in bear survival?
Objective
The student will be able to:
• Describe the seasonal cycle of a bear’s life by examining its eating habits.
• Recognize the shape and size of an adult grizzly bear and compare it to his/her own body size.
• Describe how to distinguish black and grizzly bears.
Background
Yellowstone provides habitat for both black and grizzly bears. Although they are different species and each has unique physical and behavioral characteristics, they share similar dietary requirements. Their feeding habits determine where they go to feed during the year as food availability changes with the seasons.
Grizzly bears were listed as a “threatened” species in 1975 under the Endangered Species Act. Due to the animal’s great size and need for large, unpopulated tracts of land, Yellowstone has identified specific areas of the park as essential bear habitat. In these bear management areas, human use is limited and bears pursue natural behavioral patterns. Management of the land is essential for the protection and recovery of this threatened species. These efforts and those of many other agencies have allowed the grizzly population to grow to the point that they may be delisted as “threatened” species if their habitat remains healthy.
Preparation
Activity 1—Yellowstone Bears handouts, Bear Food Chart handout, Bear Characteristics handout, large circular pieces of paper, markers, crayons, pencils
Activity 2—Grizzly Bear Pattern handout, scales, tape measure, scissors, measuring tape, drawing paper (total of 8 pieces, each 60 x 90 cm)
Handouts are included in the downloadable lesson plan document.
Materials
Lesson plan and student handouts
Lesson Hook/Preview
Students will examine the feeding habits of bears and draw pictures to show what bears do in different seasons. Students will also use a small pattern of a grizzly bear and increase its scale to construct a full-size silhouette of a grizzly in order to appreciate the bear's size.
Procedure
Activity 1—Seasons of the Bear
1. Divide students into small groups and distribute the Yellowstone Bears handouts. Allow time for students to read about each bear aloud in their small groups and complete its list of characteristics.
2. Discuss the differences in physical characteristics and behavior between black bears and the grizzly bears. Compare the diets of black bears and grizzly bears.
3. Distribute the Bear Food Chart to small groups. Discuss how to read the chart and be sure all students understand how to interpret its information, including vocabulary terms and names of plants and animals.
4. Pass out large circular sheets of paper. Instruct students to divide the circles into fourths and label them spring, summer, fall, and winter. Have students draw bears during each of the seasons, illustrating what the bears eat at that time of year. Students may wish to use the Bear Characteristics handout for accuracy in their drawings. ALTERNATIVE: Assign different small groups to make a poster illustration of each bear season.
5. Collect and display drawings. Discuss the bears’ yearly feeding patterns. Why is this called a cycle?
6. Ask students where bears will be and what they will be eating at the time of their expedition.
7. Pose this dilemma: Some biologists warn that bears’ traditional food sources are declining all across the Yellowstone region. Cutthroat trout are being eaten by lake trout in Yellowstone Lake, and a fungus is killing the white bark pine trees that supply the nuts that many bears fatten up on in the fall. What do you think could happen if these trends continue? What can be done, if anything, to protect these important food sources?
EXTENSION: Have students find articles about the latest research regarding bears, their diets, and their habitat. Yellowstone’s website www.nps.gov/yell is one good source of this information.
Activity 2—GRAPH A GRIZZLY
1. Divide the students into eight groups. Explain that the class will be making a life-size cutout of a grizzly bear. Distribute the grizzly pattern to each group and assign one numbered section to each group. Also distribute a piece of drawing paper to each group. Have students create a grid of 4” squares on their drawing paper (at least five squares by four squares) in pencil.
2. Explain to students that they will be increasing the size of the drawing on the pattern four times. Discuss ratio if this is part of your mathematics curriculum. Ask students to transfer each pattern piece, enlarging the scale of the lines drawn on the pattern.
3. Have students cut out their enlarged pieces, fit them together, and tape them.
4. Display the grizzly bear low on the wall where students can get down on all fours and compare their size to that of the grizzly bear.
5. Have students review the information on the Yellowstone Bears: Grizzly Bears handout they completed in the previous activity.
6. Discuss differences between grizzly bears and students, especially size. Are there any similarities in diet? Discuss importance of habitat for an animal as large as a grizzly bear. Discuss Yellowstone’s role in protecting grizzly bears.
Vocabulary
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Omnivore - an organism that consumes both plants and meat.
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Ungulate - hoofed mammals, typically characterized by having an odd or even number of toes. Examples include horses, cows, deer, bison, and elk. They are often herbivorous and are adapted for running and grazing.
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Hibernation - for some animals, a state of minimal activity during the winter where they sleep or rest.
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Carcass - a dead animal that is being fed on by other animals.
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Denning - period when a bear is in a den (usually a small underground chamber) where it will spend the winter hibernating; cubs are born in the den.
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Estrus - the time when bears mate.
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Hyperphagia - a state before hibernation in which bears are always hungry and eat so much that they gain a lot of body fat.
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Mast year - a year when pines produce a lot more seeds.