Several Habitats in One Location

This video shows the wide variety of plant and animal life at Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt. These include the Canada goose, barred owl, duckweed, spiderwort, foxglove beardtongue, and other plant life in the wetlands, woodlands, and prairie.

• How can so many different plants and animals live in Iowa?

• How are the plants and animals at Chichaqua different from the ones around my home and school? How are they the same?
• How are Iowa’s habitats and living things different from those in other places?

Students could:

• Watch the video again and count how many different animals they observe.
• Search around their home or school and record (draw or write) the plants and animals that they see.
• As a class, plan how they can keep track of the plants and animals in their area and conduct this investigation (ie., tally on sheet teacher makes based on student suggestions).
• Look at pictures of different habitats from around the world (forest, desert, ocean, etc.) and compare and contrast the organisms that they observe.
• Describe differences in the types of organisms found in different habitats (tree frogs found in jungles, penguins in cold areas, etc.)
• Draw or tell a short story about an animal living in the wrong type of habitat and what the experience might be like for that animal.

• Polk County Conservation | Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt Management Plan 2016-2036: Teacher background - gives extensive information on how the county plans to reconstruct the oxbows and other areas of Chichaqua.
• Iowa State University Extension | The Iowa Watershed Approach - Oxbow Restoration: Teacher background - Short flyer on oxbow restoration projects in Iowa.
• UNI Tallgrass Prairie Center: Information on prairie restoration projects in Iowa.
• PBS LearningMedia | Science Trek:Habitat: Restoring Habitat: Join biologists with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game as they explain how wildfire can change a habitat and what they do to restore and reunite habitat for deer and other animals.