Name: ________________

Date: _________________

Disappearing Sea Otter Game

Directions: Split into groups of 3. Get a cup of skittles and a paper plate for your
“ecosystem”.

Each student will play a role: either a sea otter, a fish, or an urchin. You can only
remove the color skittles that relate to the prey of your species with tweezers. Each
round is 30 seconds long.

After each round, record the number of prey left in the table below. Then, double the
remaining amount of each species to account for reproduction.

Fish = yellow skittles Urchin = red skittles Kelp = green skittles

Otters eat red (urchin) and yellow (fish)

Fish eat yellow (fish) and green (kelp)

Urchins eat green (kelp) only

Game with sea otters:

Round Fish Kelp Urchins

Initial Number 5 5 5

Game without Sea Otters:

 Round Fish Kelp Urchins

Initial Number 5 5 5

Discussion Questions:

1. What patterns did you notice in each of the games?

2. How does the sea otter affect the whole system? How do sea otters affect the
diversity of the ecosystem?

3. Can you think of an example of another keystone species?

4. Can humans affect the system?