The Track-Story Lab (Clue Cards + CER)

This is the perfect “bring the outdoors inside” lesson: especially if you can’t count on fresh snow outside your school.

What you’ll do

Students analyze “clue cards” that represent the evidence found at a winter hunting site, then write a CER explanation (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning).

Tell students:

“A wildlife biologist found a ‘snow angel’ imprint in a field. What happened here?”

Each group gets 6, 10 cards (printable or hand-written). Examples:

Core clue cards

• “Two wide wing sweep marks on either side of a center imprint”
• “Four small puncture marks near the center”
• “Tiny rodent tracks lead toward the center… then stop”
• “Tracks are near a brushy edge beside an open field”

Optional twist cards

• “Rodent tracks reappear 3 feet away and dive into thick grass” (near miss)
• “A small drag mark leads toward a fence post” (prey carried)
• “Feathers found nearby” (struggle or preening)
• “Multiple wing marks overlap” (more than one attempt)

Claim: What likely happened?

Evidence: Which clues support it? (require 3 pieces)

Reasoning: Explain how the evidence connects to owl hunting behavior.

Different groups will interpret the same clues in different ways, and that’s exactly what real field science feels like.