Students will:
Mark off an area of the classroom that is at least six feet by six feet. One-by-one have the students step into the area. Have the students indicate when the space has become too full to hold any more students. Discuss with the students how they felt as the space filled up. What made the space uncomfortable?
Have the students research and identify causes and impact of animal and plant over- or under- population in your community.
Give each student a bean of each color. Tell them that one bean is a male rabbit and one bean is a female rabbit and that they are going to record rabbit population for five years. Each year, each pair of rabbits gives birth to two rabbits, one male and one female. As the years pass, have the students get beans for the new rabbits and record the numbers on their graph paper.
Note: You can change the number of rabbits born, the sex of the rabbits born, the number of years students record, or you can throw in limiting factors to impact populations.
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