Weed Patrol
Supplementary Activities

Issue Overview: Why should your kids care?
Ecosystems are fragile balances between a diverse community of life forms and their environment. In general, they are self-contained networks where resources are perpetually recycled between organisms and their surroundings. Over many years different organisms develop attributes that make them most adaptable for the niche they fill within an ecosystem. An invasive species is an organism that has been introduced to a new ecosystem and brings with it beneficial attributes from it’s native ecosystem that allow it to out-compete native species for the resources. This competitive advantage throws the system out of balance and as resources are diverted to the invasive, or non-native, species the ecosystem begins to degrade with a loss of biodiversity as native organisms become extinct. Behind human development, invasive species are the greatest contributors to global species loss and habitat destruction. Even though the introduction of species to new ecosystems is a natural process, human activity and mobility have accelerated the process to a rate unparalleled in natural history. Like a gardener tending to a weed infested garden, we must be proactive environmental stewards protecting the balanced diversity of our natural surroundings by limiting the introduction of invasive species and removing those that are already established.

Some common examples of plant species native to Tennessee include: wild azaleas, wild hydrangeas, flowering dogwoods, coreopsis, wild geraniums, and red maple trees. Common examples of non-native plant species include: kudzu, Chinese wisteria, English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle and privet. There are pictures of all the aforementioned species included in this packet.

Group Activities:
Leaf Print
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Crayons, Paper (regular white printer paper works great), and Cardboard (the kind you get from the drycleaner is ideal)
Directions: Take your youth outside armed with three different colored crayons, a sheet of paper, and a piece of cardboard. Pick a leaf and demonstrate how to make a print by placing the leaf between the paper and cardboard and shading over the top of the paper with the crayon. Once they understand how to make a print, ask them to find three very different leaves and make prints of them using a different color crayon for each leaf. Once your youth have made their three prints gather them into a circle and ask them to make as many observations as possible. Once they have shared their observations give the group 10 minutes to decorate and color their prints. When finished, cut out the decorated leaf prints and tape them onto the wall of your meeting space under the title “biodiversity.”

Weed Warrior Worksheet
Time: 10-15 minutes
Materials: Weed Warrior Worksheet, pencils, crayons, markers
Directions: How can your kids be expected to find a weed if they don’t know what one looks like? Work with your kids to identify the parts of a weed, and then have them personalize their worksheet through illustration.

Acrositc Poet-Tree (Adapted from www.weedinvasion.org)
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Pictures of two or three non-native weeds, paper, markers, pencil or crayons Directions: Having discussed the implications of non-native species plant invasion, show your kids the pictures of the weeds, along with a general explanation about some of the problems each particular weed causes. On either a large sheet of paper or the board, have the class brainstorm words and phrases relating to each weed. Choosing one of the weeds, write its name vertically and write words or phrasing relating to the weed horizontally from each letter. After the poems are written, students may want to draw pictures to add illustrations to their work. To finish, cut a tree trunk and branches and attach it to the wall. Write the name of one of the weeds on the trunk of your tree. Have your students write on leaf-shaped pieces facts that they learned about the weed. Hang the leaves from the tree branches to create your “Poet-Tree”.

Planet Milk (Adapted from www.weedinvasion.org)
Time: 30-45 minutes
Materials: Warm milk, a variety of food coloring, liquid dish detergent, toothpicks, either a large, shallow bowl or flat-bottomed container at least five centimeters deep
Directions: Pour the milk into the bowl, explaining that the sides of the bowl represent the boundaries of our ecosystem. Add drops of different colors of food coloring to the milk in different locations. Explain that the different colors represent various life forms in the ecosystem, and that these populations (both plant and animal) took thousands of years to develop. Ask your students to observe how the drops of food coloring grow to fill all the available space, then discuss how organisms change over long periods of time to adapt more readily to their environment. Next, tell your students they are going to introduce an alien or invasive species to the ecosystem. They should carefully watch the type of change that occurs, along with the speed with which change happens. Have your students take turns adding a drop of detergent to the surface of the milk using a toothpick. Students should watch for five minutes, allowing enough time for the colors to mix and disperse, become blended and less colorful. As this process occurs, talk with your students about the impact the invasive species had on the ecosystem. Ask them which ecosystem they found more attractive and then discuss that in the context of our earth’s ecosystem.