Animals: Form and Function

Juvenile Eastern Screech Owl.
© Ronald L. McNeel, DrPH.
Movement, life cycles and reproduction, animal body types, body systems, maintaining the internal environment, adaptations, development
-
A Place to Be
Lesson
Students play a “Concentration” type card game, matching animals with their “places to be.”
Grades: K-2 -
Animals' Needs
Lesson
Student teams observe a worm model and a live worm, create worm terrariums, and observe worms over time.
Grades: K-2 -
Ants in Space
Lesson
Build your own ant habitat and compare the search behaviors of ants on Earth to those living on the International Space Station.
-
Butterflies in Space
Lesson
Students conduct open-ended scientific investigations to learn how gravity and microgravity affect the life cycle of painted lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies.
-
Food Webs
Lesson
Students construct possible food webs for six different ecosystems and learn about producers, consumers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers.
-
Mimicry and Camouflage
Lesson
Students explore the differences between mimicry and camouflage, and identify adaptations found in different organisms that illustrate specific survival strategies.
Grades: K-2 -
Plant or Animal?
Lesson
Students explore two major kinds of living things, plants and animals, and compare their needs.
Grades: K-2 -
Resources and Animals
Lesson
Students observe, examine, discuss and draw a walking stick insect or a crawfish in its natural environment.
Grades: K-2 -
Spiders in Space
Lesson
Students conduct open-ended scientific investigations to learn how gravity and microgravity affect the life cycle of golden silk spiders (Nephila clavipes), and the creation of spider webs.
-
Where Do Animals Live?
Lesson
Students draw pictures representing both their favorite nonsense lines from a poem, and animals in more appropriate environments.
Grades: K-2