Chapter 2: Introductory Activities

This chapter emphasizes the interconnections between cultures, the people, and brant. It will give students an introduction to how people play a role in the life history of brant.

Brant Journal

Objectives:
Students will collect information and create personal entries or artwork concerning the brant for their journals.

Methods:
Periodically throughout the school year, give students instructions to write or draw in their journals, depending on the activity. Some of the lessons in this curriculum call for specific things to be entered into the students journals. The journal will be particularly useful during the field trips.

Procedure:
At some point during this introductory chapter, teachers may want to have students start a journal. This may be a place for students to write down thoughts about an activity, write down observations from field, draw pictures, write a poem, do an assignment, or write down questions or concerns. Throughout the curriculum, at the end of some activities, there will be a section called "Journal Use". This section will give at least one way that the journals can be used prior to, during or after that particular activity.  

A paper notebook with 3-ring paper clips in it, would be ideal for holding the field trip data collecting sheets.

Most importantly, let the students have fun with the journals!!

Brant Video/Slide Show

Objectives:
1. Students will understand what Brant are.
2. Students will learn some of the causes of their decline.
3. Students will be introduced to the migration of Brant.

Method:
Introduce and give an overview of the Brant by watching a video or slide show. Give the students an opportunity to become investigative reporters about the Brant.

Background:
Please see the section "What are Brant?" in the first chapter.

Materials:(check with International Coordinator to see which is available).

(contact: alex@padillabay.gov)

OR

(contact: alex@padillabay.gov)

Procedure:
1. Tell the class that they are to carefully watch the 5 minute video or slide show to discover the "News of the Brant".

2. Show the video to the students once. Then, partner up the students explaining to them that they are to answer the questions on the worksheet while watching the video a second, and/or third time.

3. Have students take careful notes on their sheets during these viewings.

4. Lead a discussion on the Brant answering any questions.

Journal Use:
Have students write down questions about the video in their journals.

Extension:

Create a 3-5 minute video clip sometime during the year, about the significance of the brant in your area for the following year’s classes to use. Make a copy for the Brant Care Package.

Brant Video/Slide Show Questions

1. How many geese converge (group together) at Izembek Lagoon in Alaska?

2. Why do the geese all come here?

3. Where do the geese come from before they get to Izembek

4. From what different countries are the biologists?

5. What are the biologists doing at Izembek?

6. Why are the population numbers of brant geese declining

7. Where do the brant geese fly once they leave Izembek?

8. Why do the Brant go to Mexico?

9. How many miles is their flight?

10. How do they know when to migrate?

11. How fast can the brant geese fly?

Brant Care Package

Objectives:
1. Students will begin to understand the international scope of the project by contributing creative items to a "migrating" cultural sharing care package.

2. Students will be introduced to the traveling Brant "care package" as a means of cross cultural communication.

Background:
To foster the interpersonal connections among students along the flyway, a Brant "care package" will migrate in tandem with the brant, from site to site. This package will be available for students to contribute items, such as poems, art work, video and audio footage, and photographs of their area, their class and the Brant. This can then be mailed along to the other sites to share in the cross cultural experience. The "care package" also contains items useful for the brant monitoring field trips.

Procedure:
If you are a new participant, please send a message to the International Coordinator ( alex@padillabay.gov) to find out with whom to contact about sharing the Care Package when it is in your area. Tell your students about the migrating care package (it will be in your area when the geese are; see schedule following) and the opportunities for them to contribute their art, poetry, audio or video footage, or photographs to the care package for other sites to see what they have done. See chapter 8 for ideas on what students can contribute to the care package. The care package also contains resources for the class to use on the field trip, a banner to hang up in the school announcing the arrival of the brant, a tape recorder to record student poetry, personal interviews about the brant, and sounds of the brant from the field trip. (see the Brant Care Package Contents Guide following this lesson). Make sure that is mailed to the next site on the list by the ending date.

Care package Mailing Schedule:

(dates are when each site actually has the care package)

Alaska

Aug. 15 - Oct. 15
Mexico

Nov. 1 - Jan. 5
WA

Jan. 10 - Feb. 5
OR

Feb. 10 - March 5
Canada

March 15 - April 15

Brant Care Package Contents Guide

1. Tape recorder, batteries, and cassette tapes: These items can be used in or out of the classroom as a means to record several things: the local sounds of the brant (if they are close enough), interviews by the students about what they are seeing during the field trip (or post field-trip), creative readings or poetry by the students about the brant, or an interesting classroom discussion about brant issues. Make it interesting so that students at other sites will be interested to hear what kids in other states and countries have to say about the brant. You will find that each of the tapes are labeled for each site. If you want to keep a copy of any of your class’ dialogue, then please leave the original tape with the care package, and make a dubbed copy at your school for your classroom to keep. Please remember to only use its battery power when out in field. Use the adapter cord when in use in the classroom to conserve the batteries.

2. Peterson Multimedia Guide to North American Birds: This useful tool can be used in your classroom to increase students’ interest in birdwatching in the field. It offers regional specific information, individual species information, as well as tools to sharpen your birdwatching skills. It is very simple software to install and should take no more than five minutes. Directions are located in the front cover of CD the holder. This CD-ROM for Windows is recommended for: System 486 or higher with 8MB RAM, Windows 3.1 or higher, DOS 3.1 or higher, SVGA display, double-speed CD-ROM drive, MPC-compatible sound card (22khz, 16-bit), 10MB available hard drive space. This multimedia guide can be used while you have the care package at your school and then must be returned to and mailed with the care package on the scheduled date.

3. Samples of eelgrass and sea lettuce: These samples are for use for both in class and on the field trip. Refer to the following information so that students can understand more about the plants that the brant eat. These cards can also be taken out on the field trip and to the water’s edge (if your site is accessible to the water’s edge) and used as identification cards for the marine plant ecologist group. Discuss with them where these plants are found and some of their characteristics:

-Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is found up and down the entire flyway in estuaries and open water channels growing in both muddy and sandy substrates of protected areas. Eelgrass has an extensive root and rhizome system which allows it bind to its substrate and provide a protected haven for small animals.

-Sea Lettuce (Ulva sp.) is generally found on rocks in the upper intertidal zone, bay and estuaries, or found floating on mud flats. Sea lettuce usually grows as a single, oblong blade in a light to dark green color, and is typically ruffled along the margin. The growth and abundance is determined to some degree by water temperature.

4. Photographs: Any of the regular or aerial photographs may be photocopied for your use, but may not be permanently removed from the care package. Please feel free to add any of your class’ photos of students, brant, and the habitat in your area. Make sure that you label them with the date and where they were taken. You could even create a small class photo album to add to the care package.

5. Brant Banners: These banners were designed to create excitement in the school, in the community, and at the site both for the students and for other members of the community that may just so happen to pass by and see the announcement, "The Brant Are Here"! Hang your large banner somewhere in the school, in a hallway outside your classroom, or out in front of the school. It is waterproof so let it be known! The smaller banner is designed to serve as a marker at your monitoring site to alert passer-bys that something is going on. Plant it in the sand, and let it fly! Just remember to bring it with you when you leave your site.

6. Additional items: Be creative with your class. Feel free to add anything that is related to the brant and/or your class: video footage, goose origami art, poems, stories, paintings, paper mache brant eggs and nest, newsletters, news clippings from the newspaper about the brant or anything else!

Regarding shipping, each site covers the cost. Each of the Regional Coordinators will be in charge of coordinating the Package with the schools in their area.

Contacts for the care package:

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
c/o Sue Schulmeister
P.O. Box 127
Cold Bay, AK 99571-0127
Ph: (907) 532-2445		 South Slough NERR
c/o Tom Gaskill
P.O. Box 5417
Charleston, OR 97420
Ph: (541) 888-5558
Pro Esteros
c/o Laura Martinez
4492 Camino de la Plaza, Suit ESE-1162
San Ysidro, CA 92173
Ph. 011 52-617-86050		 Padilla Bay NERR
c/o Glen Alexander
1043 Bayview-Edison Rd.
Mt. Vernon, WA 98273
Ph: (360) 428-1558

Brant Map Activity

Objective:
To give students an understanding of when and where the Brant go throughout the year.

Methods:
Students will use a flyway-wide map with movable pieces to put into perspective the migration and behavior of the Brant during the year.

Background:
As Brant migrate each year from Alaska to Mexico, biologists monitor the timing, location, and behavior of the geese. It is up to the students participating in this project to begin to monitor the migration of the Brant in order to gain a better understanding of the needs of the geese. As participants in this project, it will be important to keep track of the location of the brant by using a flyway-wide map and calendar.

Materials:

Procedure:
1. This activity is a perfect follow-up to the brant video or slideshow. Begin by reminding the students that they are part of an international, monitoring project with participating schools in Alaska, British Columbia, Canada, Washington, Oregon, California, and Baja, Mexico. Explain that the geese migrate from Alaska to Mexico and that students in each of the countries along the flyway, like themselves, will be monitoring the geese. Refer back to the video, and to the idea that the Brant need the assistance of people, such as biologists, and caring students to understand the pressures that the population is facing.

2. In order to track their whereabouts, a map will be used to follow their fall and spring migrations (briefly discuss migration, see chapter 5). Using the provided flyway map (on website), make a copy of it onto an overhead sheet. Project this onto the wall on a large sheet of butcher paper. Have the students take turns tracing the map onto the paper and then coloring it. Use the provided key to paste on to the map. Post your map in the classroom for everyone to see. Make several photocopies of the provided map pieces (the different sizes of brant) which are also on the website. Laminate and cut them in circles. Use these to designate the whereabouts and numbers of Brant at the different sites throughout the year. Participants will be relying on the telecommunications for the location of the brant (see next activity in this chapter). All project sites will communicate the arrivals and departures of the geese to the other sites so that you and your class can mark that on your map.

3. Go ahead and place your first map pieces on the appropriate location of the map, once you receive word from other sites about how many geese are there. You will need to refer to the list serve in order to find out where the geese are. Alaska will initially notify the other schools as soon as the geese leave Izembek. For example, if students in Mexico observe 15,000 brant in January, students at all other sites will put map pieces on Mexico that total that number (one of the ‘10,000’ brant, and five of the ‘1000’ brant map pieces to equal 15,000).

4. As the geese come and go from different areas during the year, be sure to move your map pieces!

Journal Use:
A good way to keep record of the different populations, is to enter the numbers each week or each month into the student journals. Total the numbers at the end of each week or month so that these numbers can later be used in an activity to graph population changes over time.

Extension:
Obtain GIS maps of your local estuary from state or federal land agencies. Compare and contrast the different layers (forests, development, wetland etc.) what they mean, and how they might affect your local brant populations.