Girl Scouts and "The Hunger Games"

This summer, I had the chance (i.e., needed) to get out of the office and drive down to Wildwood Girl Scouts Camp in Wildwood, FL with other members of UF's Natural Resources Diversity Initiative (otherwise known as NRDI, and yes that's pronounced "nerdy"!) to teach young girls about animal foraging behavior and the careers of women in science. For some experiential learning, we do a hands-on activity that I've dubbed "The Hunger Games" in which participants collect food items (dried beans) from 1 of 2 habitat substrates (rice or oats) using different utensils (fork, knife, spoon) to represent various feeding adaptations. Before the activity, the girls develop their own predictions, which we then test using data collected by all the participants. It's an awesome way to think and learn about all kinds of decisions that animals have to make while foraging! If you're interested checking out the materials for this lesson, feel free to contact me.