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Conflict in a Terrarium |
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Grade Level |
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5-8 |
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Introduction |
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Children are subjected to a constant barrage of "conflict" on television, in the newspapers, and, oftentimes, in real life. This conflict often depicts violence and bloodshed, giving the students the impression that conflict is abnormal and wrong, when, in fact, much conflict (competition) that occurs daily in plant and animal lives is natural in any environment. While some conflict is normal in everyday human life, students need to realize that in some cases, the search to fulfil human needs can also trigger serious conflict. |
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Teacher/Student
Objective |
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The general goal of this activity is to lead students to conduct an experiment, to hypothesize about conflict that emerges over basic needs in the world of nature, and to allow them to analogize to the human world. |
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Gauging Student
Understanding |
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The progress indicators cited reflect desirable end goals. Teachers should be prepared to use a wide variety of observational, testing and authentic achievement evaluation measures in judging the progress of students.
By engaging in an experiment with plants and animals, making hypotheses, carrying out experimentation and evaluating those observations, and arriving at conclusions about the nature of conflict, the students will reveal their ability to make analogies to their own lives and to humans in general.
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Materials |
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- A container to serve as a terrarium.
- Four kinds of plants: peas, mustard, clover, grass.
- Three animal species: 8 to 10 crickets, aphids, one chameleon.
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Initial Data for
Consideration
and/or Process |
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Construct the terrarium with the recommended plants. The crickets (8 to 10) should be introduced to a dry spot in the terrarium; proceed to have students hypothesize about what will happen when aphids are introduced into that environment. When students have completed that phase, introduce the aphids and have students observe what happens. Repeat the hypothesis exercise by asking students what they think will happen when the chameleon is introduced into the terrarium? Be sure to help students with such terms as: plant eater, animal eater, predator, prey, and the major process of the food chain–have students discuss other obvious examples of a food chain. Give students an opportunity to discuss the "conflict" between the chameleon and the crickets relative to the nature of their competition for the same food source. Provide several "what ifs": not enough food or water, for example–relative to supply and the conflict to obtain what little there may be; the same could be done for plants (conflict for space and sun). Have students draw upon their own experiences and their references to television programming, stories, films, etc., to draw analogies about conflict in the human dimension, e.g., struggle over land.
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Other Possible
Activities |
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This study may be extended to a field trip. Have the children record examples of conflict for basic needs (food, water, light, space). Some possibilities:
- Dandelion pushing through crack in sidewalk (plant vs. human)
- A fly caught in a spider's web (animal vs. animal)
- Big tree crowding out smaller trees (plant vs. plant)
- Predatory animals in the wild (lions, coyotes, etc.)
- Traffic jam (human vs. human)
- News clippings about wars over the possession of land and resources
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