Iganyana Bush Camp

This curriculum should be considered a work in progress to be added to and modified continually.

The concept list will inevitably be altered over time. More importantly, new activities should be designed that are effective in educating children of the local culture. That the Bush Camp educational activities are culturally appropriate and culturally relevant is crucial to the success of the program.

Theme 1 The substances and energy necessary for life move through ecosystems.

• Substances necessary for life include water, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen.
• Substances are recycled through the nonliving environment and organisms:

• Substances, like minerals, carbon and nitrogen, are assimilated from the air, water and soil by plants.
• Substances move from organism to organism when one organism eats another, through the food chain. All food comes from the bodies of other organisms.
• Substances return to the air, water and soil through decomposition of wastes and dead organisms.

• Through the process of photosynthesis, plants put the oxygen in the air that people and other organisms need for life.
• Energy for life originally comes from the sun.
• Energy enters the food chain by photosynthesis of plants.
• Using light energy from the sun, plants make their own food (sugar) through the process of photosynthesis.
• Photosynthesis converts light energy into food energy.
• Energy moves from organism to organism through food chains.
• Energy is not recycled. It is lost (as heat) as it moves through food chains.
• Energy must be added to ecosystems continuously by the sun.

• Transpiration Lab (Campfire Area or EE Exclosure)
• Legume Root Dig/Draw (EE Exclosure)
• Role playing/Dramatic representations of biogeochemical cycles (Activity Deck)

Theme 2 Ecological relationships affect all creatures. Humans are an inseparable part of the web of life and completely dependent on it.

• Animals get the food they need by eating plants and/or other animals.
• Animals control the population sizes of plants and other animals.
• Humans play the role of top predator in the food web.
• Humans can be adversely affected by imbalances in ecosystems.

• Food Web (Activity Deck)
• Create a Food Web (Computer Lab)

• Role of Dogs Discovery Sheet (Interp Centre)

Theme 3: Each species plays an important role (its niche) in the natural community to which it belongs (its habitat).

• Each species of wild plant only grows in certain soil types, amounts of sunlight and weather conditions.
• Each species of wild animal only eats certain types of plants and/or animals.
• What an organism needs to survive and how it gets what it needs is called its niche. A species’ niche is like its life style.
• Each type of natural community is made up of interacting populations of specific species of plants and animals.
• The natural community to which a species belongs is called its habitat.

• Niche Questioning (EE Exclosure)
• Soil Analysis (EE Exclosure)
• Ecological Survey (EE Exclosure)
• Habitat Charades (Activity Deck)
• Video: Elephant (Activity Deck)
• Niche Questioning (Game Drive)
• Habitat Questioning (Game Drive)
• Natural Community Ident/Characteristics Questions (Game Drive [day] or Walkway)
• Role of Dogs Discovery Sheet (Interp Centre)

Theme 4: Each species is adapted to successfully exploit its niche.

• Each species has unique characteristics that are different than other species.
• Members of each species breed only with others of their own species.
• The shapes of an organism’s body parts and its behaviour are related to its niche.
• The special body structures and behaviours a species uses to survive are called its adaptations.

• Game Species Recognition Questioning (Game Drive)
• Adaptations Questioning (Game Drive)
• Adaptations Questioning (EE Exclosure)
• Dog Adaptations Discovery Sheet (Interp Center)
• Tree Identification/Adaptations (EE Exclosure)
• Adaptations Scavenger Hunt (EE Exclosure)

Theme 5: Painted hunting dogs and other endangered species usually become threatened due to habitat destruction or unsustainable utilization by people.

• When people use environmental resources in an unsustainable ways, the population sizes of species in the local ecosystem may decline too far.
• People often destroy the habitat of species to make room for development.

• Animal Town Meeting (Activity Deck)
• Insect Sweep Netting Survey, w/ comparison to campfire area (Exclosure/Campfire Area)
• Threats to Dogs Discovery Sheet (Interp. Centre)
• Endangered Species Research/Discovery Project (Computer Lab)
• Video: Rhino Wars (Activity Deck)
• Video: Hunters in Twilight (Activity Deck)

Theme 6: Biodiversity has value to stable ecosystems and human economies.

• Biodiversity is the number of different species of organisms in an area or ecosystem.
• The natural communities in the African savanna ecosystem tend to have high biodiversity.
• The more different species there are in an ecosystem, the more stable it is.
• Each plant species may have economic value to people as a source of wood, food, medicine or other resource. Some values of plant species are yet to be discovered.
• Wild animal species have value as food or ecotourism attractions.

• Insect Sweep Netting Survey (EE Exclosure)
• Tree IdentificationSurvey (EE Exclosure)

• When a species disappears from an ecosystem, the role it played longer exists.
• Population sizes of species that an extinct animal used to eat may grow too large.
• Population sizes of animals whose food species has gone extinct grow too small.
• Extinction of a species causes a natural community to become unbalanced.
• When a species goes extinct in the world, it is gone forever.

• Population Growth Simulations (Activity Deck)
• If Dogs are No More Discovery Sheet (Interp Centre)
• Grass Density Survey, with comparison to data outside Exclosure (EE Exclosure)
• Tree Density Survey, with comparisons as above (EE Exclosure)
• Extinct Species Research/Discovery Project (Computer Lab)

Theme 8: Sustainable populations of each species have a right to exist in healthy habitat. People are obliged to protect endangered species and natural communities, not only for future human survival, but also as intelligent stewards of the biosphere.

• Humans are not the only important species on the planet. All species play an important ecological role.
• Since humans are dependant on ecological relationships, too many extinctions can endanger even human survival.

• Animal Town Meeting (Activity Deck)
• Video: Watership down (Activity Deck)
• Video: Hunters in Twilight (Activity Deck)

Theme 9: Careful observation using all five senses, scientific skills, methods and inventiveness are useful in understanding the environment and solving environmental problems.

• Everything people know about the environment was learned by alert and careful observation using all their senses.
• Scientific methods can be used to discover more about the environment.
• Scientific methods can be used to invent better ways use and manage the environment.
• Scientific methods can be used to find solutions to environmental problems.

• My Tree (EE Exclosure)
• My Stick (Campfire Area)
• Sensory Perception Activities (EE Exclosure or Campfire Area)
• Night walk (Walkway)
• Night Sensory Perception Activities (Campfire Area)
• Dog Hunt (Walkway)
• Transpiration Lab (EE Exclosure or Campfire Area)

Theme 10: Most resources are renewable if managed with the goal of sustainable use.

• People often use environmental resources in shortsighted manners that destroy the land and leave nothing for the future.
• "Sustainable use" is any method that resources are utilized so that they are renewed continually and available to future generations, and which does not damage the surrounding environment.
• The sustainable use of each type of environmental resource requires special methods.

• Sustainable use Simulation/Role Playing (Activity Deck or Conference room)
• Community Development Questions Sheet (Interp Centre)

Theme 11: Degraded environments can be restored by careful management for long-term effect.

• Areas that have been damaged by misuse can be healed over long periods of time by special sustainable methods.
• Damaged land can be made productive again for future generations.

• Sustainable use Simulation/Role Playing (Activity Deck or Conference room)
• Community Development Questions Sheet (Interp Centre)

Theme 12: Human overpopulation is a leading root cause in environmental degradation. Family planning is crucial to the future health of the biosphere.

• If people have too many children, the human population can grow so large that the land can no longer support all the people.
• Methods of using environmental resources that used to be appropriate when there were fewer people, now may destroy the land because too many people are using the same resource in the same way.
• Families use birth control methods to plan how many children they have.
• Families with fewer children can often afford to train and educate their children better and have more land and resources to leave them as an inheritance.
• Human overpopulation is a problem all over the world. As Earth’s human population has risen at an ever-increasing rate, the rate of extinction has accelerated correspondingly.

• Animal Town Meeting (Activity Deck)
• Birth Contol Talk/Discussion (Activity Deck)
• Map Activity (Conference Room)
• Video: People Bomb (Activity Deak)

Theme 13: Human and environmental health is directly affected by individual actions.

• Each person’s decisions and actions can make a difference to maintain, destroy or heal the land.
• Each person can choose to increase or prevent the spread of diseases like AIDS.

• Video: Hunters in Twilight (Activity Deck)
• Video: Yellow Card (Activity Deck)
• STD Stories (Campfire Area)
• STD Charts (Conference Area)

Theme 14: Everyone benefits from a healthy, well-managed environment that is utilized sustainably.

• The better the land is managed, the more productive it becomes.
• The more productive the land is, the less poverty there is.
• Many people can make a good living on well managed land.
• Wild species need large, healthy ecosystems in which to survive.

• Sustainable Use Simulation/Role Playing (Conference Room or Activity Deck)
• Map Activity (Conference Room)