Camouflage and Mimicry

To end our science unit about plants and animals, we worked on an activity that would help us learn a bit more about why some animals camouflage themselves within their environments. To conduct this experiment, each student was given a carrot that was painted white. Students were then placed into one of two teams: the team on the soccer field or the team on the playground. Depending on which team students were placed on, the team on the soccer field or the team on the playground, students needed to look at their environment and decide what type of camouflage their "animal" (white carrot) needed to have in order to blend in and not get "eaten" (found by the other team). Students were given multiple resources so that they could disguise their animal, such as paint, toothpicks, string, etc. Some students even decided to forego camouflage and instead they tried mimicry with their animal, which means they tried to "mimic" another object or creature so that their "animal" looked like something else entirely. After camouflaging their animal as best as they could, students then hid their animals on their assigned spots. Once all animals were hidden, the teams were turned into "predators" and they were sent into the environment where the other team hid their animals. After hunting for a few minutes, students then retrieved their animals (students were only supposed to look for the animals, not pick them up once they found them) and we headed inside to discuss our findings. It was amazing how many animals were not found on the playground because they were camouflaged so well! Students discussed how it helped when the animals were the same color as their surroundings because then they were harder to spot by the predators. Overall, this turned out to be a fun activity that students learned a lot from!