Migration Obstacle Course
from Cycles - Fly Away or Stay?

Objective: To experience the many hazards of migration and thus understand why so many birds do not survive the trip.

Materials: cones or flags for boundary markers, obstacle neck signs (with string for hanging around neck) depicting fog, high wind, towers, lack of food, cold rain, hunter, new building, lots of cats, trees cut down at resting spot, and others.

Outdoors, mark a rectangular area as a migration flyway, noting one end as north and the other end as south; adjust the length and width as appropriate for your group. In a large circle, ask the children to name some obstacles that birds might encounter during migration, and create or have neck signs ready for these. Designate three-quarters of the children as migrating birds while the other one-quarter will be obstacles. Obstacles receive a neck sign and place themselves within the boundaries; they must keep their left foot planted while they try to tag the migrants. At "go," migrating birds attempt to fly south without being tagged by an obstacle. If tagged, the bird "dies," stopping in place or falling dramatically to the ground, until all birds have either safely migrated or been waylaid by obstacles. Ask the children what obstacles they think could reasonably be removed or made less harmful as part of human efforts at conservation. Switch roles and try the game again, minus the obstacles the children thought could be removed. Compare migration success rates.

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