Downloadable Student Instructions and Faculty Notes

Figures

Figure 1: Game board, left side.
Figure 2: Game board, right side.
Figure 3: Event cards, disturbance events. Create a deck of event cards by making multiple copies of both disturbance and no disturbance cards.
Figure 4: Event cards, non-disturbance events. Create a deck of event cards by making multiple copies of both disturbance and no disturbance cards.
Figure 5: Character cards. Only one set of character cards is needed for each game.
Figure 6: Interaction cards. To make a deck of interaction cards, make multiple copies.
Figure 7: The rules handout. Handouts for students, include the rules, worksheet and sample community diagram.
Figure 8: Blank Student Worksheet. Have students record their results in the blanks provided.
Figure 9: Sample community diagram. Handout for students with instructions on creating their own community diagrams, and a sample diagram.
Figure 10 & Figure 11: Photos for formative evaluation pre and post activity quizzes. (From: Hastings and Turner, The Changing Mile, 1968.)
Figure 12: Graph of students' quiz scores.
Figure 13: Graph of students' quiz scores showing a difference in impovement by question.

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Feel free to use the PDF's linked above, whole or in part, to tailor an unique handout for your students. Here are two contrasting examples:

If you want to take students into the field "cold" so they could make their own observations, the only information you might give ahead of time could be a list of necessary field clothes. After the trip (and explanation/experiences in the field ), you could give students a shorter hand-out containing:

Overview (includes Overview written for students, references and some links)
Lab Objectives
What Is Due
Guidelines for Research Papers/Presentations (using links and examples, and including assessents)

In contrast, if you want students to be more fully prepared for an upcoming lab or field trip ahead of time, you could give them a longer hand-out that includes:

Overview, Principle Ecological Questions Addressed
Lab Objectives and other Summary Information
Full Lab Description (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Data Analyses, etc.)
What Is Due
Questions for Further Thought
Guidelines for Research Papers/Presentations (using links and examples, and including assessents)