Forests:

Lesson Plan
Overview
Forests provide homes for wildlife, shelter, food, cover;
and the plants of the forests cleanse the air and provide
oxygen while taking in carbon dioxide. The plants also
stabilize the soil and provide a barrier to noise and dust
from farm fields. Forests protect our soil and waterways and help prevent erosion by acting as a buffer to
waterways.
Forests provide a retreat for humans, a chance to revitalize the soul. Campers and canoers, hikers and hunters, birdwatchers and horseback riders all use and enjoy
forests. And forests have inspired many painters, photographers, writers, and other artists. Forests provide
lumber for our homes, furniture, musical instruments,
toys -- and all kinds of other things it would be hard to
imagine living without.
Forests cover about one-third of the United States. Of
these forests, the U. S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service manages 156 National Forests spread out
over 186 million acres. The rest are managed by other
federal and state agencies (such as the National Park
Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Bureau
of Land Management, and state forests) and by private
owners.

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Lesson Plan 4:

Forest Investigations
Activity 1: Forest Understory and Decomposers
There is enough equipment for at least 10 teams. Depending on the size of your group, divide into teams
of 2-5 students. Each team gets 1 trowel, 1 jar, and 1 white paper plate. Have teams find a place in the
woods near a fallen log and leaf litter and away from poison ivy. Teams may spread out, away from other
teams, but stay in sight of the bus.
Use the white paper plate to spread soil and litter on and the trowel to sift through soil. Place animals in
jars. At the end of activity, classify animals by number of legs and place specimens in white bottomed pans
for group observation and identification. See below.
Examine logs for plant and animal life. When turning over logs, remember to return them to their original
position to protect this animal home.

Pan # 1 - 0 - 4 legs

Pan # 2 - 6 legs

Pan # 3 - 8 or more legs

Place animals with no legs (worms, snakes, slugs, etc) and 4 legs (frogs,
toads, salamanders, lizards, etc) in Pan # 1. The most common snakes
at Bombay Hook are the blackrat, ribbon and garter snakes in the forest and Northern water snake in the wetlands. Toads are dry, have
warts, and hop. The frogs are smooth and moist and leap. Salamanders
are smooth and moist and are amphibians like the frogs. They have a
similar body shape to lizards, which are dry, scaly, have claws and
teeth, and are reptiles.

Place animals with 6 legs (insects) in Pan # 2. Note: Insects that go

through complete metamorphosis may fool you in certain stages like
the larval and pupa stage. In the larval stage you can still see the 6 legs
but in caterpillars you also see stumps or false legs, which dont count
as true legs. In the pupa stage you see a sack which may wiggle, but
you dont see the legs.

Place animals with 8 or more legs in Pan # 3. Spiders, ticks and mites
have 8 legs. Isopods (sometimes called rolly pollies or sow bugs) have
more than 8 legs and are land crustaceans. Centepedes have 2 legs per
segment; millipedes have 4 legs per segment and can roll up.

See Attached Forest Identification Key

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Activity 2: Observing a Critter

Name: ______________________________
Date: ______________________________

Draw Your Critter

How does your critter:
Move: ________________________________________________________________
Protect itself: __________________________________________________________
Obtain food: __________________________________________________________
What might your critter eat:
What might eat it:

___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Where do you think your critter lives: ___________________________________________

How can you tell: _______________________________________________________
Does the color(s) serve any purpose: _____________________________________________
What purpose: _________________________________________________________
What value is your critter to the environment:

____________________________________

What kind of critter do you have?

Circle one:
insect

insect larvae

spider

mite

millipede

centipede

sowbug

earthworm

nematode

other: __________________

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Activity 3: Create A Five Stage Food Chain

Background Information
Food contains stored energy which animals use for metabolic maintenance, growth, and reproduction. When
food is eaten, some portion of the stored energy is passed to the animal. This same energy is then transferred
along a food chain as one animal eats another. Example: Food Chain - A gray squirrel eats an acorn and a
red fox eats the gray squirrel. Many food chains make up a food web. The word Food Web refers to the
many possible feeding relationships found among members of a community. Most animals use more than one
species as food.
Every species has a unique ability to get food including grazing, foraging, and hunting. Food availability
affects population size within a given community. Generally, in spring and summer abundant plant growth
provides an ample food supply causing an increase in birthrates among herbviores. In turn, an increase in
herbivores (prey species) provides additional food for carnivores (predator species). As more food becomes
available for predators their populations also increase in number. Prey species are adapted for escaping, while
predators are well suited for hunting and catching prey. The result is a kind of balance between the two.
Using the attached forest food web and information from activities 1 and 2 construct a five stage food chain
that shows predator/prey relationships.
A ___________________ eats
a ___________________ ,which eats
a ___________________ ,which eats
a ___________________,which eats
a ___________________.
Draw Your Predator and Prey

Activity 4: Draw Animals and Plants and Label a Food Web for a Community

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Activity 4: The Cycle of Life

List the animals, their evidences, and the animal food you have seen in the appropriate places
in this diagram. What other words and ways can you think of to illustrate a similar cycle? Put
in arrows.

Light

Plants

Herbivores
(plant eaters)

Nutrients

Omnivores
(plant & animal
eaters)

Carnivores
(meat eaters)
Death
Decomposers (bacteria, fungi) & Insects

What would happen if one of these groups were eliminated?

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Key To Identification of Soil Animal Groups

1a. Segmented animals: animals with a series of constricted rings around the body .......................
1b. Nonsegmented animals .............................................................................................................

2
8

2a. Segmented animals with jointed legs or other jointed appendages ...........................................
2b. Worm-like segmented animals with no jointed appendages .......................................................

4
3

3a. All segments similar, no well defined head .......................................................

3b. Head well defined, harder and usually darker than the rest of the body,
mouthparts usually visable ......................................................................................

earthworms
(Phylum Annelida)
insect larvae
(Phylum Arthropoda)

4a. Animals with 3 pairs of legs (if worm-like -- insect larvae) ...........................................
insects
4b. Animals with more than 3 pairs of legs ......................................................................................
5

5a. With 4 pairs of legs ................................................................................

spiders, mites, ticks
(Phylum Arthropoda, Class Arachnida)
5b. With many pairs of legs ..............................................................................................................
6
6a. With one pair of legs on almost every segment ..................................................................
6b. With 2 pairs of legs on most segments ...............................................................
millipedes

7a. Oval-shaped animals; often fold body into ball when distrubed ............
sowbugs or pillbugs
(Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, Order Isopoda)
7b. Elongated body, not folding into a ball ..............................................................
centipedes
(Phylum Arthropoda, Class Chilopoda)

8a. Minute nonsegmented worms ............................................................................

nematodes
(Phylum Nemotada)
8b. Soft bodies, slimy animals with or without a hard coiled or spiral shell .....
slugs (without shells)
snails (with shells) (Phylum Mollusca)
Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Table to Identify Amphibians and Reptiles

Vertebrate cold-blooded animals (body temperature controlled by surroundings)

AMPHIBIANS
REPTILES
Skin

either moist and smooth or dry and warty,

no scales

dry, scales

Eggs

usually laid in water

laid on land (some snakes bear living

young)

Young

different shape from adults, except some

salamanders

same shape as adults

Breathe

with gills when young (usually)

with lungs when adult (usually)

with lungs at all times

none

all except snakes

TO ADS, FRO GS, SALAMAN DERS

SN AK ES, TURTLES,
CHAMELEO N S, LIZARDS,
CRO CO DILES, ALLIGATO RS

Claws
Examples

In Delaware most of these animals are harmless; however, the jaws of a large snapping turtle are dangerous.
Only one species of poisonous snake, the copperhead, is found in Delaware, and they are not found at Bombay
Hook. The bites of other snakes are not dangerous unless the wound becomes infected.
Salamanders are often mistakenly called lizards, but actually they are more like frogs with tails. (Lizards
have dry and scaly skin and the skin of a salamander is moist and smooth.) They eat mostly insects
and other small invertebrates. Although adult frogs and salamanders usually have lungs they also
breathe through their skin, so must be kept moist at all times. In hibernation they breathe entirely
this way.
Frogs eat primarily land or water insects. They have moist smooth skin. Their slipperiness and their ability
to jump enable them to escape their enemies. They are much better jumpers than toads. Frogs
eggs are laid singly or in clusters.
Toads eat mainly insects and earthworms. They have a dry warty skin, but people cannot get warts from
handling them. Toads lay their eggs in a chain-like formation.
Snakes are very useful animals which should not be killed. The small ones live largely on soft-bodied
animals, earthworms, slugs, and some insects. The larger ones eat mice and other small vertebrates, frogs, toads, etc. A snake swallows its prey whole, holding it with teeth which curve back,
while the top and bottom jaws move alternately to work the prey down. The hinged jawbones and
the elasticity of the skin and stomach allow it to eat animals bigger around than itself. A snake
sleeps with its eyes open since it has no moveable eyelids. Its forked tongue is not a stinger but
aids the snake in smelling, tasting, and feeling objects.
Turtles are among the best protected animals due to their shell which is like a hard suit of armor. The backbone of turtles is attached to the upper shell and the breastbone to the lower shell. A full-grown
turtle has few enemies, but the eggs are often dug up and eaten by skunks or raccoons and the young
are often eaten by larger turtles and other water animals. They all lay their leathery-shelled eggs on
land, usually digging a hole for them.
Crocodiles and alligators are not found in Delaware. Two lizards, the five-lined skink and the
Northern Fence Lizard are uncommon but can be found at Bombay Hook.
Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Forest Identification Key

Larva

Worm

Garter snake

Five-lined skink

Marbled salamander

Redback salamander

Fowlers toad

Gree treefrog

Bee

Stag beetle

Ground beetle

Stink bug

Cockroach

Daddy-long-legs

Spider

Pillbug

Centipede

Millipede

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge