Play “Chomp, Nibble, Grow, Grow!”
Players explore the relationships between sea otters, sea urchins, and kelp in this luck-meets-strategy ecosystem game.
Before You Play
The game requires 2 players or 2 teams of up to 5 players each. Here are a few helpful things for players to know before getting started: Ecosystems consist of interdependent species. In a balanced ecosystem, all the plants and animals have everything they need to live well. One example of an ecosystem includes sea otters, sea urchins and kelps. Sea otters eat sea urchins, and sea urchins eat kelp. If possible, have the children watch the video clip “An Urchin Matter: For Real" to see teams play Chomp, Nibble, Grow, Grow, Grow! or the full episode “An Urchin Matter” to learn more about keystone species.
Materials
Directions
Place the 2 hula hoops, sheets of paper, etc. on a table, desk, or on the floor. They can be next to each other or facing each other. These are the ecosystems.
Place a “throw” line (a piece of string, making tape, etc.) about 1 to 2 feet away from each ecosystem. Players must stand behind this line when tossing game tokens.
Give each team half of the game pieces. A recommended starting quantity is 2 sea otters (blue), 4 sea urchins (red), and 5 kelp (green) per team. But feel free to experiment with another quantity. During gameplay, each team will need extra tokens for stabilizing their ecosystems.
One player from each team starts by standing at the “throw” line in front of their ecosystem and tossing one token into the ecosystem. If it lands inside, great! If not, the token is then out of play.
Team members take turns throwing one token at a time into their ecosystem, until all the tokens have been thrown. Encourage the group to get as many tokens as possible to land in their team’s ecosystem. Remove all tokens that fall outside the ecosystem and put them out of play. Any tokens that fall in the opposing team’s ecosystem stay in that team’s ecosystem.
Once all tokens have been tossed, it’s time to for players to check the health of their ecosystem. Chant "Chomp, Nibble, Grow, Grow, Grow!” and complete the following steps, in order:
- Chomp! Every otter eats one urchin if it can. Any otter that doesn’t eat an urchin dies and should be removed from the ecosystem. Remove any urchin that has been eaten.
- Nibble! Every urchin eats a kelp if it can. If it can’t, it dies and should be removed from the ecosystem. Remove any kelp that have been eaten.
- Grow! If any kelp remain, add one kelp to your ecosystem. (If several kelp remain, still add only 1 kelp.)
- Grow! If any urchins remain, they double. (1 becomes 2, 2 become 4, 3 become 6, etc.)
- Grow! For every two otters, add one otter. (If you only have one otter, do not add any.) Remind players to refer to their “Chomp, Nibble, Grow, Grow, Grow” Step-by-Step card as they play the game.
Have players examine their ecosystems. If they still have at least one otter, one urchin and one kelp, congratulations! They get one point and can play another round. If a player doesn't have all three species, their ecosystem is not stable and their game is over.
Repeat steps 1-4 until 5 rounds are successfully completed or until no players have a stable ecosystem (doesn’t have all 3 species).
Teams score one point after each round when all three species are still alive in their ecosystem. The winner is the player or team able to maintain a balanced ecosystem for 3 or more rounds or with the most points at the end of play.
Science