9-12 High School
This activity is a quick simulation game designed to get students to make sense of how group behavior can impact the survival of individuals and ultimately a species. Students play a game, acting as a prey or predator, in 3 scenarios:
The time to capture a prey will be recorded for each trial. Herd and pack behavior are just 2 of many behaviors impacting survival that students may consider. The short phenomenon videos give students a visual clue about how animals function in a group.
Show students both short video clips and ask them to record observations and questions that need to be answered to understand the phenomena they just viewed. You may conduct a brief class discussion or have students discuss in pairs or small groups.
How can group behavior impact the chance of survival for an individual and/or a species?
HS-LS2-8. Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
LS2-D: Social Interactions and Group Behavior
Cause and Effect
Make certain there is adequate space for the class to move as a group or herd and still have room for the predators to approach from several angles.
Premake the game labels to save class time. No disposal of chemicals or materials is required.
Scenario 1: Healthy herd and 1 predator
Scenario 2: Herd with infants and
unhealthy prey and 1 predator
Scenario 3: Herd with infants and
unhealthy prey and a pack of predators
Student answers will vary. There should be a trend favoring the group with one predator. Time to catch a prey will be the greatest in the healthy prey population and shortest with a pack of predators and a prey population with infants and unhealthy prey.
For each scenario, explain which role—predator or prey—was favored. Explain your answer using the time data.
Prey are favored in scenarios 1 and 2. Their number remain large enough to reproduce and survive. In scenario 3, the predators’ probability of catching a prey increases because they are hunting in a pack and there are infants and unhealthy individuals that are easier to catch. (Students should refer to the time data.)
Describe how the probability of survival for individuals changes for each role, predator and prey, across the 3 scenarios. Refer to your data.
For both roles, healthy individuals have the best chance for survival, (refer to the time to catch a prey above). As the number of predators increases, the time to catch a prey goes down, decreasing an individual prey’s chances of survival and increasing the predator’s chances of survival. The herd provides protection for the individual prey and the pack provides increased hunting ability for the predators.
Describe how the probability of survival for the species changes for each role, predator and prey, across the 3 scenarios. Refer to your data.
In both roles, the probability of survival increases for the species when individuals form a group/pack. The group provides protection in the case of the prey and makes getting food easier for the predator. For a species to survive, there must be adequate resources to live and reproduce.
If you ran several trials, what did you learn from each trial? How does this apply to herd animals and lone individuals?
Student answers will vary, but experience and learning should impact survival rates positively.
*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.
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