Activity Plan for Our Natural World
Understanding Outdoor Ethics
This activity will take approximately 45 minutes.
What Your Group Will Learn
This activity plan will help foster understanding of outdoor ethics. After
participating in this activity plan, which will
Activity Plan for Our Natural World
Understanding Outdoor Ethics
This activity will take approximately 45 minutes.
What Your Group Will Learn
This activity plan will help foster understanding of outdoor ethics. After
participating in this activity plan, which will set the stage for learning
outdoor ethics, group members will be able to
- Describe simple connections between the plants and animals of an
- Predict changes to an ecosystem that have been caused by human behavior.
- Tell how to choose behaviors that help protect natural resources.
Group members will play a game that will help them make connections to the
natural world and understand how their behaviors can affect nature. Using a ball
of string and cards that represent plants and animals, group members will
construct a "web" of connections between all living things.
- Cards approximately 3" x 5" (number of cards
to be determined by group size)
- Hole punch
- Approximately 4 feet of yarn per
- 100 feet of thick string
- Paper and pencil for each person
pictures, or words to represent sun, clean water, clean soil, and air
- A copy of
instructions and scenario cards
- Read this entire activity plan and
thoroughly review the Background on the Principles of Leave No Trace.
- Roll the
100 feet of string into a ball.
- Prepare the alpine ecosystem cards as
- Print the "Scenario Card" at the end of this
activity plan, laminate (optional), and cut along dotted lines. Have scenario
cards available for use by leader or by individuals.
Grabbing Your Group's Attention (5 minutes)
Before people can choose to Leave No Trace in the
backcountry, they often need to adopt reasons for caring for our natural world.
This activity plan will help participants identify some of those reasons. Ask
participants to name some of the plants and animals they might find in
backcountry or wilderness areas.
Steps for Teaching the Activity (20 minutes)
Equate! Relate!—A Game of Connections
This game demonstrates the connection or
links between plants and animals in an alpine setting and will help participants
predict the effects human impacts have on those plants and animals of this
Read and explain the "Equate! Relate!" game instructions
below to the group, then play the game. The purpose of this game is to
connections among plants and animals of an ecosystem.
- Describe how human
behavior can affect ecosystems.
Participants should assume the role of the plant
or animal listed on their alpine ecosystem card.
Prepare the Alpine Ecosystem Cards
Write the names of the 19 plants and animals listed in the column to the
left on the 3" x 5" cards, one name to a card. Punch sev