E.C.O.: Becoming Snowshoe Hares

We have continued our learning about animals and adaptations through a variety of E.C.O. activities over the past few months.  Before going outside, we wrote in our E.C.O. journals, explaining about what we already know and questions that we want to answer about snowshoe hares.  We also made a scientific drawing of a snowshoe hare, trying to be as accurate as possible.

Outside, we tried to jump like snowshoe hares.  We learned that they can bound up to 12 feet in a single leap and that they have been clocked running up to 30 miles per hour on ice!  We discussed how their hind feet are covered in fur and how they can spread their toes apart to increase the surface area of their feet.  These special features allow them to walk on top of snow when many other animals sink into the deep snow.

Next, we played a predator/prey tag game as we became hares and their various predators, such as foxes, coyotes, and owls.  After that, we had snack in the E.C.O. woods and listened to a Siberian folk tale called How Snowshoe Hare Rescued the Sun.

For our main lesson, we learned about how snowshoe hares change colors which allows them to camouflage themselves in their habitat during different seasons.  Students worked in small groups, taking turns being a brown snowshoe hare, a white snowshoe hare, or a predator.  The "hares" hid their fabric hares somewhere in their "territory" while the predator counted to 20.  Then, the predator had to try to find the hares.  Groups kept track of which hare was easier to find.  All groups discovered that in the spring, there were good places for both the brown and white hares to be camouflaged since the snow is starting to melt.  Did you know that the amount of sunlight that a hare is exposed to brings on its color change?

After the lesson, students returned to their E.C.O. journals to write about what they had learned about snowshoe hares.