Homework for the night prior to the field trip: At home close your eyes and visualize a prairie. Imagine that it’s a warm sunny day with a gentle breeze. Now try to conceive what the prairie sounds like, smells like, feels like, and looks like. For each sense quickly write down a few sensations that you experience as you visualize a prairie.
- Sit down and use all your senses to describe a prairie ecosystem. Close your eyes and
listen, then describe the different sounds of the prairie. Move through the prairie and
smell the soil, plants, and the air. Feel all the textures of the different plants and the
coolness of the breezes. Watch the interactions of the various organisms. Record it all.
Hulbert Plots
- Describe what is found in plots burned yearly, every four years, and not burned at all.
Burned Yearly:
Burned Every Four Years:
Never Burned:
- Compare the plots. Estimate the percent composition of grasses, forbes (wildflowers
and green stemmed plants), and shrubs (woody stemmed plants) on each plot. Which
plots seem to be healthy prairie ecosystems?
Burned Yearly:
Burned Every Four Years:
Never Burned:
- Quickly describe what the prairie must have looked like before settlers.
- In the short-grass prairies of western Kansas drought was the only factor necessary to
prevent trees and most shrubs from establishing themselves in the ecosystem. However,
the tall-grass prairie ecosystem contains enough precipitation for the survival of trees and
shrubs. For a healthy prairie ecosystem fire was required to eliminate trees and shrubs.
What evidence can you think of that would support this?
- Read: It’s 1800 and the tall-grass prairie flows around you. Grasses up to your
shoulder sway to and fro, responding to the currents of the wind. A light gray mist seems
to shadow the blue sky past the horizon. It slowly changes into a darkening cloud. Within
minutes the cloud seems to have swollen above the horizon. This dark ominous
messenger expands as each minute expires. Soon one can detect the vague odor of
smoke. A deer hurries by. Birds have stopped singing and have moved to thickets on the
other side of the hill. There is a sense of urgency in the air. Within a few minutes a
glowing red line dances over the hill and rolls down the slope. Now the line of fire
extends as far as you can see. With every passing minute the smoke thickens and the air
fills with ash and soot. A field mouse frantically searches for the safety of its den. The
fire’s closer now. One can see the individual flames as they continually stretch upward
pursuing the searing 400-degree heat as it tries to escape. The flames ignite a lone cedar
tree, which erupts into a brilliant torch. Larger burnt particles are now floating down
among the ash and thick smoke. The stench of burning vegetation overwhelms one’s
sense of smell. A column of flame moves up the hill and leaps past you, incinerating
everything in its path. The dried grass and vegetation crackles and explodes in a blaze of
yellows, oranges, and reds as the line of fire surges forward. Behind this fiery wall are left
blackened acres of charred ground and smoldering soil. In the fire’s wake, it appears that
only charred remnants of prairie remain. But underground, escaping the flames’
onslaught, persists a tenacious network of rhizomes. They belong to different types of
grasses all of which have adapted to prairie fires. Fortunately many forbs and most
herbaceous plants have not adapted and therefore have perished. This is beneficial in that
it leaves plenty of room and sunlight for the grass. With a little time and moisture new
grass shoots will force their way upward toward the surface. Thus grass, the predominant
organism of the prairie ecosystem, has been reestablished.
- Imagine yourself as some prairie animal (select something besides a bird). What would
it be like to be on the prairie during a prairie fire. Indicate what adaptations (anatomical,
physiological, and behavioral) that you possess that will preserve you during this hazard.
Start with: “Just a whiff of smoke alerted me and I gave my complete attention to the
odor. Using all of my senses I strain to . . . .”
- Select some prairie plant. Write on how a prairie fire would affect that particular plant.
Indicate what anatomical and physiological adaptations that plant has developed to protect
itself from the fire. (Reproductive parts will sometimes save species if not the individual.)
- Compare how early settlers must have viewed prairie fires and how plains farmers and
ranchers feel about them today.
- Homework: Write an essay on the following: How would the absence of prairie fires
have changed history (American history as well as natural history)?
Pat Lamb
Overview and Connection to the Curriculum: This lesson plan is to help students identify plants. It can be used to identify plants found in any ecosystem. This lab can be modified so that variations can be used throughout the elementary grades, middle school, high school, or college.
Time Required: The time required depends on the quality of the presentation you demand and the variation of the lab that you use. I believe it will take a minimum of 2 class periods (1 class period if you only want rough drawings) to collect the data.
Materials and Equipment: Each student will fill out one wild flower form per plant, photograph the flower of the plant and the entire plant, and with their partner videotape the plant while their partner gives its name and a short narrative containing a description of the plant and any important facts about the plant (Ex. edible, poisonous, medicinal).
Procedure:
- Students should work in pairs. Select someone that is as serious about the
project as you are, so as to eliminate possible problems.
- Select a flower.
- (A) Mark the flower’s location on a map. (B) Circle ecosystem and give a
quick description of area.
- Using a taxonomic key determine the name of the plant.
- Photograph the entire plant and one of its flowers.
- Fill out the student wild flower form.
- Video plant in the following manner:
A. Prior to filming the plant, run a "focus test."
B. Do not walk with camera while filming. If you need to get closer, use
the zoom. If you still need to get closer to flower, then stop filming
and walk closer.
C. Hold shot of plant or flower for at least 30 seconds. Read description
of plant from taxonomic book or botany book. Include any thing of
taxonomic or historical significance. (Ex. - Square stem or Indian and pioneer
uses.)
Place photograph of entire plant here.
Place drawing of 2 leaves (or 1 if leaf is compound) here.
Worksheet (page 2)
Place photograph of plant’s flower here.
Place drawing of flower here.
Notes Leaf Type - simple compound Leaf Arrangement - alternate opposite whorled basal Flower Arrangement - Petal # = 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 >10 Petals: ray flowers regular disk flowers irregular both Stamen # = 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 >10 Ovary: superior inferior Plant Height = ____________________ Flower density: Common in area, scattered throughout area, rare in area. (plants/area) 10/m2 1/m2 1/5m2 1/10m2 other=_____________ Ecosystem plant found in: tall grass prairie, gallery forest, disturbed soil, rocky slopes, marsh, meadows, riparian, other=_______________________________ Any unusual physical characteristics or adaptations? Does the plant have any historical significance
