How Does Goldy the Gopher Hibernate?

Instructional Guide

Learners will explore how animals hibernate, and how foraging for the right kind of food is vital for their ability to hibernate. The lesson includes a short reading, a foraging game and short assessment.

Intended Grade Level

This lesson is best suited for 3rd- 5th grade. Students should be familiar with general anatomy of the GI system, what hibernation is, and who Goldy the Gopher is.

Learning objectives

• Students will be able to explain what hibernation means.
• Students will be able to explain the difference between brown fat and white fat and why hibernators need both brown and white fat.

• Students will be able to go foraging for the best foods for Goldy Gopher to eat before winter.

Lesson Format

Link to student page

This can be done in any size group. Activities are best down alone and require a computer.

• First students will popcorn read or read alone the section on hibernation.(15 minutes)
• Next, students will go foraging for food by playing a game, clicking on images to collect the food. (10 minutes)
• The assessment will be a short quiz to test students on what they have learned (5 minutes)

Lesson Background

Teachers should feel comfortable discussing what hibernation is, what brown and white fat are, and what kinds of food are necessary for animals to eat in order to survive hibernation. 

Activities

Students will pretend to be a gopher (13-lined ground squirrel), and click on images to “forage” them for hibernation. There are 6 total images, with 4 of them being things that gophers eat to hibernate. After, students can see how many images they find and determine based on the following reading, if they were ready for hibernation or not. 

Common misconceptions and challenge points

Students may be confused on the topic of hibernation and how long it lasts, for clarity it can be explained that animals hibernate for a short period of time, typically the winter when it is cold out.

Students may be confused as to why gophers eat things like insects and lizards, it can be explained that they are omnivores and enjoy eating small insects and lizards.

Assessment

Students will go through a short quiz to assess what they have learned throughout this lesson. Questions will be multiple choice or true/false.

Further exploration

If students are interested, there are many videos on youtube, such as the one below to explore more.