Materials Included In Kit

Safety Precautions

Remind students to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water before leaving the laboratory. Follow all normal classroom guidelines.

Disposal

All materials may be saved and reused.

Lab Hints

• Enough materials are provided in this kit for 30 students working in groups of 6. All materials are reusable. This laboratory activity can reasonably be completed in one 50-minute class period.
• The instructor should become familiar with the game before student play. It would also be wise to show students samples of each of the hands from the Habitat Hold ’Em hand ranking sheet before beginning the games.
• Additional games may be set up and played after the initial round if desired.
• Have one student be the dealer for each group. Students who have played Texas Hold ’Em or other poker games would be the best candidates to be dealers.
• The Habitat Hold ’Em game may also be played without betting rounds. Have students show their two cards (hole cards) face up as they receive them. After the flop (the first three dealer cards) has been shown, the player with the best hand wins. Keep track of overall wins by adding tally marks to a score sheet.
• A fewer number of students per game and a lower amount of points required to win may be used to speed up the game, if desired.

Teacher Tips

• This is an excellent activity to have students perform during food chain and food web discussions.
• Discuss other types of habitats within the various biomes.
• Have students make their own organism cards for different types of habits.

Answers to Questions

1. Define the following terms—biosphere, population and habitat.

   Biosphere—a region of the Earth from the bottom of the ocean floor to roughly eight kilometers into the Earth’s atmosphere.
   Population—the members of a single species in one area at a single time.
   Habitat—the place where a particular species makes it home or lives.

2. Define biotic and abiotic factors. List specific examples of biotic and abiotic factors found in one of the habitats from the Habitat Hold ’Em game.

   Biotic factors are the living parts of an environment such as plants and animals. Abiotic factors are non-living parts of the environment and include items such as light, water, soil and temperature. Specific types of factors listed will vary.

3. What would happen if a predator organism was removed from a certain habitat?

   If a predator is removed from a habitat, lower consumers and producers may increase in numbers to a level that the habitat may not sustain. This may lead to a crash of specific lower consumers and/or producers. Specific examples will vary.

4. In general, are there more secondary consumers or producers in a healthy habitat? Why?

   In general, there are more producers than secondary consumers in a population. An excess of producers must usually be available to allow secondary consumers and higher level consumers to survive.

5. Pick one of the food chains created from the Habit Hold ’Em game. Create a food web by drawing other organisms from that habitat that may eat or be eaten by the creatures in that chain. Draw at least 5 additional organisms.

   Answers will vary.

6. Draw a food chain and a food web for organisms living in your area.

   Drawings will vary depending upon location.

Teacher Handouts

10769_Teacher1.pdf

Introduction

What are habitats? What types of animals live in various habitats and how do they coexist? Answer these questions by playing this exciting card game.

Concepts

• Biomes
• Food chains
• Habitats
• Food webs

Background

Scientists have identified and classified more than 1.5 million different types of living things. These organisms live within a region of the Earth from the bottom of the ocean floor to roughly eight kilometers into the Earth’s atmosphere. This wide region of life is known as the biosphere. The biosphere includes all of the land, air and water where organisms live. Within the biosphere there are many different environments that consist of both biotic and abiotic factors. Biotic factors are the living parts of an environment, such as plants and animals. Abiotic factors are non-living parts of the environment and include items, such as light, water, soil and temperature. All organisms on Earth depend on both biotic and abiotic factors to survive in their particular environments.

A population consists of the members of a single species living in one area at the same time. An example of a population would be all the largemouth bass in a single lake. Groups of populations that interact with one another are called a community. All communities and abiotic factors in a certain area make up an ecosystem. An ecosystem can be a large area such as a forest, desert, or large body of water, or a very small area such as a backyard or a small plot of woods. The place where a particular species makes its home or lives is called a habitat. Every type of organism in a habitat has characteristics that enable it to function in or around the specialized biotic and abiotic factors found there. Habitats provide a species with food, shelter, water and whatever else is needed to survive.

There are many types of organisms in different habitats. Organisms such as plants and algae are autotrophic. Autotrophs, or “self-feeders,” are able to produce their own food from the Sun’s energy. Other animals known as heterotrophs, or “other feeders,” cannot produce their own food. Deer, for example, are heterotrophs—they eat grasses that are autotrophs. Some heterotrophic animals, known as predators, eat other animals. Examples of predators are largemouth bass, sharks and coyotes. The animals that are fed upon by predators are known as prey.

One way to study organisms in a specific habitat is to look at their feeding habits and relationships. Trophic relationships deal with the types of food organisms eat and how organisms are dependent on one another. The word trophic is defined as “to eat” and is a root word found in both the terms autotrophic and heterotrophic. Autotrophs and heterotrophs are also respectively known as producers and consumers (see Figure 1). 

Producers are autotrophic and are at the bottom of the food chain. Consumers are heterotrophic and can be placed into several groups. Herbivores obtain energy by only eating plants. Some examples of herbivores are cows, deer and rabbits. Carnivores, such as snakes and lions, only eat other animals. Omnivores, such as humans and bears eat both plants and animals. All consumers are dependent upon producers in one way or another. Consumers may be further broken down into groups based on how far removed their food of choice is removed from the producers. Primary consumers feed directly upon producers, secondary consumers may feed upon producers or primary consumers, and tertiary consumers feed upon the secondary consumers and so on.

Within specific ecosystems food chains are formed. A food chain is a direct relationship between a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer and a tertiary consumer. In some instances, a quaternary consumer may be involved. Other organisms known as scavengers and decomposers are involved in food chains as well. Scavengers eat dead animal and/or plant material. They do not directly hunt or prey upon animals. Turkey vultures are classic scavengers. Decomposers are organisms that break down tissues of living or non-living organisms. Decomposers absorb nutrients from organisms they feed upon. Fungi and bacteria are examples of decomposers.

In nature, not all feeding relationships between organisms are formed directly in a food chain. There are many individuals that may prey or may be preyed upon by different types of organisms. A food web more accurately defines these types of relationships. Food webs are networks of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem.

Experiment Overview

In this activity, organisms from four different habitats—marine, desert, forest and swamp will be studied. A Habitat Hold ’Em card game will be played to learn more about the different organisms and their relationships in these four habitats.

Materials

Safety Precautions

Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before leaving the laboratory. Follow all normal classroom guidelines.

Procedure

The Shuffle

1. Assign one member of the group to be the dealer.
2. The dealer should obtain and shuffle the 52-card deck.
3. Each player should receive the following amount of bingo chips—2 red, 5 green and 10 blue.
4. The blue bingo chips are worth 1 habitat point, the green bingo chips are worth 2 habitat points and the red bingo chips are worth 10 habitat points.
5. Each player should also obtain a Habitat Hold ’Em hand ranking sheet and a Habitat Hold ’Em “Who Eats Whom” sheet. Note: There are three new types of hands on the ranking sheet as opposed to the standard Texas Hold ’Em rules. They are the Food Chain Trip and Food Chain Quad the Complete Food Chain. If a player wins a round of Habitat Hold ’Em with the Food Chain Trip all other players must give that player 2 blue bingo chips. If a player wins a round of Habitat Hold ’Em with a Food Chain Quad, all players must give that player 4 blue bingo chips. If a player wins a round of Habitat Hold ’Em with a Complete Food Chain, all players must give that player a red bingo chip.

Starting the Game

6. The player directly to the left of the dealer should place 1 blue bingo chip in the pot (center of the table) before any cards are dealt. The next player to the left should place 2 blue bingo chips in the pot. This ensures that there’s something to play for on every hand.
7. The dealer should then deal each player two creature cards, face down. These are known as the “hole” cards. Do not show these cards to the other players.

Betting Begins

8. A round of betting takes place, beginning with the player to the left of the two players who placed the blue bingo chips in the pot.
9. Players can call (place two blue bingo chips in the pot), raise (add additional bingo chips to the pot) or fold (not play that hand) when it’s their turn to bet.

The Flop

10. After the first betting round, the dealer discards the top creature card of the deck. This is called “burning the card” and is done to ensure that no one accidentally saw the top card.
11. The dealer then flips the next three creature cards face up on the table. These cards are called the “flop.” Note: Eventually, a total of five creature cards will be placed face up on the table. Players can use any combination of these five creature cards and their own two hole creature cards to form the best possible five-card Habitat Hold ’Em hand (see the Habitat Hold ’Em hand ranking sheet).
12. After the flop, another round of betting takes place, beginning with the player directly to the left of the dealer. During this and all future rounds of betting, players can check (pass), call, raise or fold when it’s their turn to bet as done in steps 8–9.

The Turn

13. The dealer burns another creature card and plays one more face up onto the table next to the flop cards. This fourth community card is called the turn.
14. The player to the left of the dealer begins the third round of betting.

The River

15. The dealer burns another card before placing the final creature card face up on the table. This card is called the “river.”

 Final Betting and the Winner

16. Players can now use any combination of seven cards—the five creature cards and the two hole creature cards (known only to them)—to form the best possible five-card Habitat Hold ’Em hand.
17. The fourth and final round of betting starts with the player to the left of the dealer.
18. After the final betting round, all players who remain in the game reveal their hands.
19. The player with the best Habitat Hold ’Em hand wins all of the bingo chips in the pot.
20. If the game is won with a Food Chain Quad or Food Chain Trip hand, all players should record the food chain on a separate piece of paper. These food chains will be used in the Post-Lab Questions.
21. The first player to obtain 120 habitat points wins the game.
22. After the game is over, answer the Post-Lab Questions.

Student Worksheet PDF

10769_Student1.pdf