Purpose This game shepherds children and adults through the life stages of salmon, while also emphasizing: Audience
Materials
2. Build the nine dice from the templates by either: Print the dice in color or accent the dice with the color to match the station they belong to. Color-coding the stations makes set up and clean up much easier! Layout Set your stations up in such a way that each player must make a relatively long “migration” to play the whole game. You can see in the photo in the attached guide that the pond served as the “ocean,” and the farthest station, 6, was all the way down there, very far from the starting table. Station 9 is out of the photo. At each station, place the station label (sign or lid of container), receptacle for lentils (this might be the container that is labeled), and the die corresponding to that station. Stations 1 and 2 should be very near each other (as they are both egg stages), and very near the “natal stream” home table. This way, you can assist players with the first few stations, to make sure they have the hang of it. Then, send them off on their journey, which should be a clear path, but quite far. I recommend having your players “swim” down one side of the field/space and then back up the other side. The home table is ready to both send new players off on their journey (with a cup of lentils) and also receive returning players with their few lentils left. When players return, they should be able to turn in their cups and also pick up their optional booklet handout (attached worksheet).
1. Each participant begins by arriving at the main table. There, give each participant a small (4 oz.) cupful of lentils and tell them that this is their salmon “redd.” Each lentil represents one salmon egg that could eventually grow into an adult salmon. In fact, the number of lentils that is in each cup is approximately the number of eggs that a pair of adult salmon lay in a redd. 2. Walk the participant to the first station, or send them to your educator or volunteer who is waiting there. At the first station, explain that salmon go through many life stages. Some salmon make it through all the life stages, but at each life stage, there are threats and obstacles that can prevent a salmon from surviving. Each station shows the participant what life stage they are at and also presents some obstacles that at least some of their salmon will have to avoid. 3. Have the participant read the text of the first station label. Then explain that the die has some of the threats that are posed to salmon at that life stage. They must roll the die to see what happens to their salmon. Have the participant read whatever threat their salmon face from the die, and the fraction of how many succumb to that threat. 4. The participant then pours that fraction of their lentils into the station receptacle. Remind the participant that, at each station, the fraction they read is to be applied to however many lentils are left in the cup (not the total that they started with). For example, if the participant rolls that ½ of their salmon are eaten by a big fish, then they pour ½ of their remaining lentils into the receptacle before moving on. 5. The participant must then visit the next 8 stations, and roll the die at each one. 6. When the participant returns to the table with however many salmon they have left, ask about what happened. Ask how many salmon they have left. And ask how many are needed to build a new redd and lay a whole new batch of eggs. 7. Have the participant return their cup and any remaining lentils. They can then pick up a booklet to illustrate, in which they can capture some of what they’ve learned. You might even provide crayons or colored pencils for them to get started at your booth. Questions What happened to all your salmon? Acknowledgements Activity by Rochelle Gandour-Rood, TU’s Headwaters Youth Program Coordinator. Many thanks to TU Chapter 383, North Kitsap Bainbridge Island, for requesting this activity in the first place, and for piloting it at a spring fly fishing expo on Bainbridge Island. Gratitude to TU Chapter 146, Tacoma, for continuing to work with the activity, and to Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery and Pierce Conservation District for their interest in the game. Thanks, also, to Long Live the Kings for their illustrations, scientific consultation, and other assistance in creating this final version of the game.
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