GRADE: ESAM: 3-5

CONTENT STANDARD: Life Science

CONTENT TOPIC: Animals

CONCEPT: Animals must be able to adapt to changes in order to survive.

CONTENT OBJECTIVE: E3.00 To understand the means and characteristics of animal adaptation

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: The learner will:

3.01 describe a number of structural adaptations in animals.
3.02 explain how adaptations help animals obtain food.
3.03 define migration and hibernation.

I. Animal adaptations
A. Body parts
B. Body coverings
C. Special adaptations
II. Behavior
A. Migration
B. Hibernation

TN COMPONENT OF SCIENCE: Unifying Concepts of Science

TN GOAL:

To enable students to acquire scientific knowledge by applying concepts, theories, principles and laws from life/environmental, physical, and earth/space science.

2.2 FORM AND FUNCTION - Form may determine the function of a material or a system, and function may alter form.

2.2a How an object functions is related to its form.

BENCHMARK: The form of a structure implies its function. The function of a structure tends to dictate its form.

TIME REQUIRED:

Three instructional periods

Magazines, art paper, crayons, magic markers, stapler, scissors

Today, we will learn special structural adaptations such as body coverings and body parts

(Have magazines with animal pictures. Put students in groups to work on bulletin board. Have materials together and in the groups - scissors, drawing paper, crayons, magic markers, magazines, stapler.) Make a list of the following adaptations (Body coverings): fur, feathers, thick plates, skin, scales. Write an example of an animal for each body covering: thick plate - armadillo; feathers-birds; skin - human beings; scales - fish; fur - bear. Find pictures of animals with these body coverings. Mount pictures and label the covering. Be able to explain how these coverings are helpful to animals. We will put our bulletin board together.

Make a list of body coverings that help animals adapt and give an example for each. (pause, seek responses, then summarize)

Magazines, posters, pictures, poster board for chart, crayons, magic markers, research books

Today, we will learn some adaptations that help animals obtain food.

(Write these terms on the chalkboard and let the students define them: ADAPTATION, SKIN, SCALES, FEATHERS, DOWN, FUR, BILL, TEETH) Work in three groups. Research and list animals with adaptations of scales, fur and keen eyesight. Three other groups work on researching and listing contrasting adaptations of moist skin, furlessness, poor vision. We will discuss your findings with the class. (Allow adequate class time for this.)

Most animals are well adapted to live in their natural environment. Those organisms that are best adapted tend to survive and reproduce offspring. Adaptations may have several different origins. Structure, function, and behavior are some of the more prevalent adaptations. The armadillo is covered with thick plates that protect it from being eaten by other animals. Horses, bears, raccoons and many other animals have fur that protect them from the cold. A hawk has keen eyesight, sharp talons and a sharp beak. The talons and the beak help the hawk to grasp and tear apart its food. Some other adaptations are skin adaptations that include moist skin of amphibians, the scales of reptiles and fish, the shells of arthropods and mollusks, the feathers of birds, and the fur of mammals. (Obtain a contour feather and a down feather. Have students view the feathers with hand lens. Ask the student to observe the differences. Find pictures of different types of birds. Look at the beaks and discuss how their bills are adapt for getting different kinds of food.)

(Make a chart which lists the kind of bird, a drawing of the bill, and the food eaten by the bird.)

Give one adaptation and an example of the animal that has that adaptation. (pause, seek responses, then summarize) (Make short bills/long bills by gluing longer and shorter broken popsicle sticks to clothespins. Then allow the students to practice picking up large and small items to see what works best.)

Poster board for charts, research books, posters, pictures of animals that migrate or hibernate

Today, we will learn the weaning of migration and hibernation

There are two types of animal behavior. Inborn behavior is behavior an animal receives before birth. It includes reflexes, instinct, and social behavior. Inborn behavior is an automatic reaction or response to a stimuli. The other type of animal behavior is learned behavior. It includes conditioning, trial and error learning, and perceptual learning. Learned behavior can become an automatic reaction once a habit is formed. Learned behavior can be changed, whereas inborn cannot be changed voluntarily.

(Write the word "instinct" on the board.) Find this in your dictionary and raise your hand when you have. (response) What is the meaning of the term? (response) (Have pictures or posters of flying geese.) These geese are migrating. I would like for someone to find the word "migration" in the dictionary and read aloud the definition. Now think about these questions: How do birds know when to migrate? How do they know where to go? (Inborn behavior or instinct) (response) (Show a picture of an animal that hibernates and follow with a discussion.)

(Bring a housefly or some other insect in a jar. Put cover on jar, but have holes for sufficient air for the insect. Set the jar in a pan of warm water. Observe the reactions of the insect. Slowly add ice cubes to the water and continue to observe the reactions. Discuss the changes and relate them to possible parts of the changes that start migration. Have students research animals that migrate and make a migration chart. List the animals and the places where they go. Let 2 groups research the topic of hibernation and list animals that hibernate, where they go to hibernate, and when they awake in the spring.)

Name one animal that migrates and one that hibernates. (pause for response, then summarize)

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