| Name of Activity | Backyard Animal Adaptations |
|---|---|
| Author | Emily Ryan |
| Keywords | animal adaptations, environments, design, build, unique, animal, animals, found materials, adapt, modeling |
| Subject | Non-LEGO, LEGO Building |
| Grade Level | K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| Time | 1 Hour Total |
| Brief Description | Students will look atanimal adaptations and then design and build their own unique animal that could live in their backyard. |
| Lesson Objectives: | To teach students about animals and why they have certain adaptations for particular environments. To teach students to design and build a model based on particular constraints. |
| Materials Needed: | pipe cleaners feathers cloth glue string tape popsicle sticks any other available building materials LEGOs (optional) |
| Preparation and Set Up: | Gather an assortment of building materials. Collect some research on animals and their adaptations. Pictures of an environment that the animals need to adapt to. If desired, break students into groups of 2 – 4. Distribute materials to students. |
| Necessary Background | Animals adapt to their environment in many different ways. The most evident adaptation is color and texture. Camouflage is used by many animals to protect themselves from predators. Some examples include tree frogs, polar bears, and iguanas. Animals may also be colored to make them appear to be something they are not. Moths and butterflies often have coloration that makes their wings look like eyes. Animals also adapt to their environment. Giraffes developed long necks to allow them to reach food at the tops of trees. Arctic foxes have snow white coats during the winter which they shed to reveal a light brown coat for the summer monthsVocabulary: Adaptation Design Modeling |
| Procedure |
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| Attached PDF | http://sites.tufts.edu/stompactivitydatabase/files/formidable/AnimalAdaptPres.pdf |
Used this lesson on 9/26/13 with 4th grade class at the Healey School. Students seemed interested in the idea of animal adaptations, but could not figure out how to make structures of any complexity using only pieces from the NXT kit.
We used this lesson as a spring board for our final project in an animal adaptations unit in a 5th grade classroom at JQS. We had previously discussed the adaptations and animal would need to live in certain habitats and defend itself. We gave the students parameters in which the animal would need to survive. Example shown below (at lease one thing from each category was circled for the kids).
This animal lives in the:
tundra
desert
ocean
rainforest
wetlands
What are some adaptations it will need to survive in this habitat?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This animal must be able to:
swim
jump
run
fly
This animal will defend itself with:
crypsis (camouflage, mimicry, countershading, warning coloration, breaking the contour, etc.)
weapons
armor
chemical repellents
This animal is:
a predator
prey
The students seemed to really enjoy the idea of creating their own animal. They used their science knowledge to create an animal that would be able to survive. However, they often deviated from their planning and made it much more of a crafts project than an engineering design project. Overall a good activity.