Animal Migration

Activities to try

1. 1

   Run a season-driven migration map

   Why it works: Migration is a regular, seasonal, there-and-back journey that an animal makes because the habitat offering food or breeding sites shifts with the seasons — it is purposeful, not aimless wandering, and for monarchs the round trip spans multiple generations.

   1. Pick a migrant (e.g. swallow, Arctic tern, wildebeest) and watch where it starts on a world map.
   2. Turn a calendar/season dial and observe the 'good' habitat move across the map — for example grass greening in a summer feeding region, or breeding waters warming in a breeding region — while the animal's food/breeding meter responds. (Which direction is 'good' depends on the species: swallows breed in the northern summer, humpback whales breed in warm tropical waters.)
   3. Move the animal to follow the shifting habitat, discovering that staying put makes the food or breeding meter drop.
   4. Advance through a full year so the animal travels out AND back, matching each leg to a season and its reason (feed / breed / escape harsh season).
   5. For the monarch route, watch a generation counter show that the animal that sets out is often not the one that arrives.
2. 2

   Steer by the animal's navigation cues

   Why it works: Animals do not 'just know' the way — they use real, nameable cues (sun, stars, Earth's magnetic field, landmarks, smell), often several together, to navigate long journeys.

   1. Take control of a migrant and try to stay on its route, using the animal's real cues: the sun's position, the stars, Earth's magnetic field, coastal landmarks, or (for salmon) the smell of its home river.
   2. Try the cues one at a time as a game, then notice that real animals often use several cues together to stay on course.
   3. Match each cue to an animal that famously uses it (e.g. salmon and home-river smell).
3. 3

   Map and label real migration routes

   Why it works: Real migrants span many animal groups — birds (Arctic tern, swallow), mammals (whale, wildebeest), fish (salmon), insects (monarch) — and each route has a destination and a reason, making the scale and purpose of the journeys concrete.

   1. On a world map, tap or trace the route of at least three migrants out and back.
   2. For each, read or reveal why it goes (following food, reaching breeding grounds, escaping winter/dry season) and roughly how far.
   3. Pair a summer feeding ground with a winter breeding ground for a migrant that fits this pattern (e.g. humpback whale: polar summer feeding, tropical winter breeding) to see the before/after habitat contrast — swallows do the reverse, breeding in the northern summer.