(From Project Wild (p.131), modified for eagles)

• area - either indoors or outdoors - large enough for students to run (e.g., playing field)
• chalkboard or flip chart
• writing materials

Procedure:

1. Begin by telling students that they are about to participate in an activity that emphasizes the most essential things that animals need in order to survive. Review the essential components of habitat with the students: food, water, shelter and space in a suitable arrangement. This activity emphasizes four of those habitat components - food, water, space and shelter - but the students should not forget that all the components have to be in a suitable arrangement or animals will die.

2. Ask your students to count off in fives. Have them split up into groups. Mark two parallel lines on the ground or floor 10 to 20 yards apart. Have the "ones" line up behind one line; the rest of the students line up behind the other line.

3. The "ones" become "eagles." All eagles need good habitat in order to survive. Ask the students what the essential components of habitat are again; food, water, shelter and space. The eagles (the "ones") need to find food, water, space and shelter in order to survive. When an eagle is looking for food, it should clamp its hands over its stomach. When it is looking for water, it puts its hands over its mouth. When it is looking for shelter, it holds its hands together over its head. When it is looking for space, it holds its arms out in front. An eagle can choose to look for any one of its needs during each round or segment of the activity. The eagle cannot, however, change what it is looking for during that round. It can change what it is looking for again in the next round, if it survives.

4. The "twos," "threes," "fours" and "fives" are food, water, space and shelter. Each student gets to choose at the beginning of each round which component he or she will be during that round. The students depict which component they are in the same way the eagles show what they are looking for: that is hands on stomach for food, etc.

5. The game starts with all players lined up on their respective lines (eagles on one side; habitat components on the other side), and with their backs to the students at the other line.

6. The facilitator begins the first round by asking all the students to make their signs - each eagle deciding what it is. Give the students a few moments to get their hands in place. (As you look at the two lines of students, you will normally see a lot of variety - with some students water, some food, some space, and some shelter. As the game proceeds, sometimes the students confer with each other and all make the same sign. That’s okay, although don’t encourage it. For example, all the students in habitat might decide to be shelter. That could represent a drought year with no available food or water.

7. When you can see the students are ready, count: "One...two...three." At the count of three, each eagle and each habitat component turn to face the opposite group, continuing to hold their signs clearly.

8. When eagles see the habitat component they need, they are to run to it. Each eagle must hold the sign of what it is looking for until getting to the habitat component person with the same sign. Each eagle that reaches it's necessary habitat component takes the "food," "water," "space" or "shelter" back to the eagles’ side of the line. This represents the eagle successfully meeting it's needs, and successfully reproducing as a result. Any eagle that fails to find it's food, water, space or shelter dies and becomes part of the habitat. That is, in the next round, the eagle that died is a habitat component and is available as food, water, space or shelter to the eagles who are still alive. Note: When more than one eagle reaches a habitat component, the student who gets there first survives. Habitat components stay in place on their line until an eagle needs them. If no eagle needs a particular habitat component during a round, the habitat component just stays where it is. The habitat person can, however, change which component it is from round to round.

9. You as the facilitator keep track of how many eagles there are at the beginning of the game, and at the end of each round. Continue the game for approximately 15 rounds. Keep the pace brisk, and the students will thoroughly enjoy it.

10. At the end of the 15 rounds, gather the students to discuss the activity. Encourage them to talk about what they experienced and saw. For example, they saw a small flock of eagles begin by finding more than enough of it's habitat needs. The population of eagles expanded over two to three rounds of the game, until the habitat was depleted and there was not sufficient food, water, space and shelter; then they returned as part of the habitat. Such things happen in nature also.

11. Using a flip chart pad or chalkboard, post the data recorded during the game. The number of eagles at the beginning of the game and at the end of each round represents the number of eagles in a series of years. That is, the beginning of the game is year one; each round is an additional year. The students will see this visual reminder of what they experienced during the game: the eagle population fluctuated over a period of years. This is a natural process, as long as the factors which limit the population do not become excessive to the point where the animals cannot successfully reproduce. The wildlife populations will tend to peak, decline and rebuild; peak, decline and rebuild - as long as there is good habitat and sufficient numbers of animals to successfully reproduce.

12. In discussion, ask the students to summarize some of the things they have learned from this activity. What do animals need to survive? What are some of the "limiting factors" that affect their survival? Are wildlife populations static or do they tend to fluctuate, as part of an overall "balance of nature?" Is nature ever really in "balance," or are ecological systems involved in a process of constant change?