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Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
California Wildfires
Watch Class Movie
teacher Prep
Lab sheet & activites
Class Movie
Watch Class Movie
Class Movie
Teacher Prep Movie
Lab Materials Needed
Blockey Koa Crate
from Kea STEMCrate
- 1 Springy Spring Scale per student
Student Lab Sheet
Plant and Animal Traits: Wake Up With Whiskers
(English/Spanish)
(English/Spanish)
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes 4-LS1-1:
Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. [Clarification Statement: Examples of structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.]
Pacing Guide:
Color Key: Green Words- Hands-on Activity Black Words- Book Reading Blue Words: Revisit the Phenomenon
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Instruction day 1 (pages 0 - 1): Read and discuss
Summary: Introduce the topic of animal adaptations to their environments. Have students provide an example of their favorite animal and its helpful features.
Lesson Objective: Introduce students to the idea that animals have special adaptations to help them survive in their habitat. Have students provide an example of an animal and its adaptations.
Introduction: Everyone take a big breath in! Hold it for just a second, now let it out. We are breathing, eating, living organisms. Can you think of other things around the school or your home that are also alive? (Pets, plants, birds, bugs, etc.) Do you think there are living things that you can’t see? (Microscopic animals like plankton in the ocean or bacteria.)
Instructions: Read text on both pages. Have students write about their favorite animal, its adaptations and common habitat. Have students draw their animal, pointing out some of its adaptations.
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Guiding Questions:
Ask: You can pick a wild animal or a pet animal, either is fine. I recommend that if you pick something that lives with humans, like a dog, you can think of at least one thing that would help it survive in the wild. Can you think of an adaptation a dog has?
Example: A good nose to find food, fur to keep it warm, etc.
Ask: An adaptation does not just have to be how it can protect itself from predators! It can also be special features that help it find food, water, shelter, or a mate. If I were to pick a giraffe, what about its body helps it get food?
Example: Its long neck helps it to get leaves high in the trees.
Instructions: Each student shares with the class one of their animal’s adaptations.
Writing prompt: Does your animal have a name? Name your animal and write a few sentences about what it does during the day.
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Instruction day 2 (pages 4 - 17): Read "Wake up With Whiskers" and enjoy!
Summary: Read "Wake Up With Whiskers" with your class.
Lesson Objective: Explain annotations for the book and introduce the story. You will then read the story while pausing for small activities for the students to understand the themes of the story.
Introduction: “We are about to read a new story that might have words that we don’t know and when that happens, we get to do some fun things!” Explain what different things students noticed while reading.
Instructions: Have students practice drawing different items outlined on page 2-3. Read story to students and discuss.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What’s a new word you have learned? What do we do when we have a question?
Explain: Talking about new words they have learned gets them excited about finding new ones. By giving examples of what they do when they have a question, they can know what to draw when they do. This can save you more time in the long run so the kids can remember their questions and track how much they’ve learned.
Ask: Do you think your pet has an easy life? What does your pet do everyday?
Explain: By talking about their own pets or any animals they have observed they can identify more with the story over the next few days. Observing their animals that night can make them good scientists and learn to observe and learn more.
Ask:What would you do if you turned into an animal?
Explain: This question excites the students about what will happen in the story. Some students could be correct about what will happen in the story.
Wrap-up: Invite students to write and draw about what a day would look like for them if they became their pet.
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Class Video: pages 4 - 5
Class Video: page 6
Class Video: pages 6 - 7
Class Video: pages 10 - 11
Class Video: pages 14 - 15
Class Video: pages 8 - 9
Class Video: pages 12 - 13
Class Video: pages 16 - 17
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Instruction day 3 (pages 18 - 19): Explore the Phenomenon
Can You Adapt?
(Explore the Phenomenon)
Summary: Students attempt normal activities without
the use of their thumbs.
Lesson Objective: Students attempt to perform normal activities without the use of their thumbs. Students recognize that humans have unique adaptations that help them survive. Students use creativity to accomplish everyday tasks in a new way.
Covid Adaption: Students can do these activities at their own desks. Alternate activities such as: taking the pencils out of their pencil case, unzipping their backpack, tying their own shoe and writing their name are fun challenges without the use of their thumb.
Materials for Stations:
-Lots of tape! (STEMTaught Shelf -painter’s tape or scotch tape recommended)
-2-3 large cups or bowls
- 5 Ziplock or other resealable bags
-15 pennies from Koa Crate.
- Wheels and axles crate
- Cubie blocks crate
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Set-up: Get tape ready, set up 6 stations for students to visit. Include the instructional pictures for each station.
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Write your name! (large scraps or pieces of paper, pencils): Set up a table or desk with at least 4 pencils and enough pieces of paper for every student.
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Drop it in! (pencils, pennies, trays, large cups or bowls) At a table or desk, set up one or two trays of pencils so all students can reach. Put enough so the number of students at that station can each pick up 3-4 to drop into the cup or bowl. Set out a similar amount of quarters or pennies.
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Build it! (axles, wheels) At a table or desk, set up separated axles and wheels.
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Tie a bow! (shoelaces or string) Leave the 5-foot sections of string tied in the middle to the table leg or have students tie their or a neighbors shoe.
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Zip it! Practice zipping and unzipping your backpack
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Seal it up! (resealable bags, Cubie blocks) At table or desk, set out 5 bags already empty and sealed with 15 loose Cubie blocks.
Introduction: We are going to be talking about how adaptations help humans and animals survive. There is an adaptation you have as a human that you use everyday and you probably don’t even notice you’re using it. Everyone pick up a pencil. Good, that was easy, but could a dog do it? (No) Why not? (They don’t have thumbs.) Very few animals have thumbs that work like ours. This helps us to do so many things like carry objects more easily, open doors and build machines. What is something else we use our thumbs for on a regular basis? (Playing video games, giving thumbs up, holding onto bike handles, etc.) Today we are going to explore what life would be like without being able to use our thumbs!
Instructions: (We recommend having an assistant or two in the classroom to help this activity run more quickly and smoothly.)
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Tape students’ hands so that they are unable to use their thumbs, but their fingers can still wiggle. Students should understand their goal is to experience life without one of their most useful adaptations.
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Give basic instructions for each station.
Are you allowed to put your mouth on something that someone else is going to touch after you? (No!) As hard as it is to do things without your thumbs, you may not use your mouth instead! Is this a race? (No)
2-4 minutes per station, Congratulate students that are coming up with creative solutions!
Wrap-up: Write or pair/share prompt: Which was the hardest task to do? Which was the easiest? Did you come up with any creative solutions? What would be hard about not having thumbs at recess?
This Idea came rom an amazing STEMTaught Teacher named Denise Granucci - Thank you!
Class Video: pages 18 - 19
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Instruction day 4 (pages 20 - 21): Read, write and discuss
Summary: On these pages, we talk about all the things we can do with opposable thumbs.
Lesson Objective: Truly solidify what the students were introduced to during the story. The students will connect what they did during the stories with more activities outlined on these pages.
Introduction: Lots of animals have opposable thumbs like ours, just like the raccoon in this video.
Instructions: Students will do activities without their thumbs and see clearly how many things their bodies allow them to do. Then discuss how they felt doing these things and read about other animals with opposable thumbs.
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Guiding Questions:
Ask: What are some traits some animals have that we don’t?
Explain: We learned about gorillas and monkeys with opposable thumbs, but what about bees stingers or bird wings! These things allow animals to do their job much more effectively.
Ask: What other parts of our body can do cool things that animals can’t?
Explain: We have teeth that can chomp up our food while animals like birds have beaks that break up food differently than us.
Wrap Up: Each living thing is given different gifts that they can use to help do their job and all are important. Even human beings have different limbs and skills that allow them to live life differently and we are grateful for them all.
Additional Resources
Instruction day 5 (pages 22 - 23): Read, discuss, and write!
Summary: Introduce the topic of how animals adapt to their environments. Have students provide an example of their favorite animal and its helpful features.
Lesson Objective: Introduce students to the idea that animals have special adaptations to help them survive in their habitat. Have students provide an example of an animal and its adaptations.
Introduction: Everyone take a big breath in! Hold it for just a second, now let it out. We are breathing, eating, living organisms. Can you think of other things around the school or your home that are also alive? (Pets, plants, birds, bugs, etc.) Do you think there are living things that you can’t see? (Microscopic animals like plankton in the ocean or bacteria.)
Instructions: Read text on both pages. Have students write about their favorite animal, its adaptations and common habitat. Have students draw their animal, pointing out some of its adaptations.
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Guiding Questions:
Ask: You can pick a wild animal or a pet animal, either is fine. I recommend that if you pick something that lives with humans, like a dog, you can think of at least one thing that would help it survive in the wild. Can you think of an adaptation a dog has?
Example: A good nose to find food, fur to keep it warm, etc.
Ask: An adaptation does not just have to be how it can protect itself from predators! It can also be special features that help it find food, water, shelter, or a mate. If I were to pick a giraffe, what about its body helps it get food?
Example: Its long neck helps it to get leaves high in the trees.
Wrap up: Each student shares with the class one of their animal’s adaptations.
Writing prompt: Does your animal have a name? Name your animal and write a few sentences about what it does during the day.
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Instruction day 6 (pages 24 - 25): Read, discuss, and write
Summary: Discuss physical adaptations some plants and animals have.
Lesson objective: Students learn about physical adaptations and demonstrate understanding by describing how a penguin’s physical adaptations help it survive.
Introduction: Let’s make sure we know what we’re talking about today. What is an organism? (A living thing.) What is a habitat? (Where an organism lives.) Good! Today we are talking about how an organism’s body helps it live in its habitat.
Instructions: Read the first paragraph together with the students. Have all students pronounce the word “adaptation” slowly. Let’s sound it out together. (Add-apt-tay-shun) When we get comfortable with big science words then we find it easier to understand what they mean.
For each listed physical adaptation on the first page, have a different student read it starting with “One of a (animal) ’s adaptations is ____________.”
Read the text on the second page. Have students answer the last question on the second page. (A number of possible answers are on the next page, if they look ahead then discourage them from copying from that list.)
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Guiding Questions:
What an interesting list of adaptations on the first page! Was there one you’ve never heard of before?
Ask: Now we see a picture of penguins, does anyone know where most penguins live?
Example: Most live on or near Antarctica, they all live near water. A special breed of penguins called the South African Penguins even live on islands off the coast of Africa!
Ask: We know penguins can swim, what can you see on a penguin’s body that might help it swim?
Example: Flipper-shaped arms are designed to help move easily in the water. The whole body is shaped for speed in the water.
Ask: What is something a penguin might use its beak for?
Example: Catching fish, feeding its young, cleaning its feathers, etc.
Ask: What about living in cold weather? What about a penguin’s body keeps it warm?
Example: Waterproof feathers and blubber both help to insulate against the cold.
Ask: What other adaptations can you think of?
Example: Tail? Claws on feet? Feather color?
Wrap-up: Pair/share prompt: What would you need to have if you were going to take care of a penguin as a pet?
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Instruction day 7 (pages 26 - 27): Read and discuss
Summary: Discuss penguin adaptations and how they compare with another bird in the same habitat.
Lesson objective: Students discuss physical adaptations of penguins and compare them to another species of bird that lives in the same habitat.
Introduction: A penguin is an unusual bird! Most birds are able to fly to help them find food and escape predators. Instead, a penguin is able to swim for their food and can be so fast underwater that it helps them dodge their predators. What do you think would be a predator for a penguin? (Seals, sea lions, sharks, etc.)
Instructions: Read both pages and lead a class discussion using the guiding questions.
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Guiding Questions:
There are a lot of things about the penguin’s body that help it survive!
Ask: Let’s talk about their feathers, what are the two main colors that penguins have?
Example: Black and white.
Ask: Which color gets warmer in the sun?
Example: Black) It’s important their backs are dark so they warm up more quickly than being all white.
Their white feathers are important too! If a seal is swimming in the ocean and wants to find a penguin for a snack they are probably swimming lower in the water as the penguin splashes in at the surface. When the seal looks up towards where the penguins might be, they are looking in the same direction as the bright sun.
Ask: How will the white feathers on the penguin’s belly help?
Example: The white feathers help the penguin to blend in more easily to the background as the predator looks up.
Ask: Lots of things that live in the water have lighter-colored bellies and darker colored backs! Can you think of another ocean animal with camouflage like that?
Example: Sharks, other fish, sea turtles, etc.
Ask: Another adaptation penguins have is blubber, what a fun word!. What is blubber?
Example: A thick layer of fat that insulates the body in extreme cold.
Ask: Do you think that blubber makes you more likely to float in the water or more likely to sink in the water?
Example: Float because fat is less dense than water.
Ask: On the second page, the text talks about the Emperor Penguin and Shearwater Bird. Both are a type of bird that lives near the cold ocean, but their bodies are so different! What is a big difference that the book talks about?
Example: The Shearwater flies and penguins do not, it also mentions how heavy or light their bones are.
Ask: Do penguins need to fly to survive?
Example: No, they swim, walk on land and survive just fine without flying.
Ask: If they have heavier bones, maybe it is something that helps them survive, what ideas can you come up with?
Example: Could be a pair/share prompt before sharing answers with the class.
If a penguin’s blubber causes it to float more than sink in the water, the penguin needs to be heavier in order to not just bob on the surface like a rubber ducky! By having heavy bones the penguin is able to have a bit of float and a bit of sink that allow them to swim just right to find their food.
Wrap-up: Pair/share prompt: The Emperor Penguin and Shearwater Bird are two types of animals that are both birds and live in the same habitat, but with very different adaptations. Can you think of two other animals that are in the same category, but have different body structures? (Ex: ladybugs and ants are both insects, but with very different bodies!)
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Instruction day 8 (pages 28 - 29): Read, discuss, and write
Summary: Discuss various physical animal adaptations.
Lesson objective: Students discuss a variety of physical adaptations across the animal kingdom.
Introduction: Who can remind me what an adaptation is? (Something about an organism that helps it survive.) There are so many animal adaptations to learn about! Some things you can tell are special about an animal just by looking at it. We get to meet lots of animals today and discuss some of their adaptations.
Instructions: Read the first sentence together. Have the students all think about at least one thing about each animal’s body that is helpful, but they don’t need to write yet. Put them in small groups to share what they thought of and write down their ideas together. Ask for volunteers to share what their group came up with for each animal. There can be a variety of answers for every animal, use guiding questions to help for animals the students get stuck on.
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Guiding Questions:
Bald Eagle:
Ask: What do you think a bald eagle likes to eat?
Example: Fish
Ask: How does it grab the fish?
Example: Strong talons
Impala:
Ask: What cool horns it has! Male impalas have horns but females do not. What might a male use his horns for?
Example: To fight other males for a female.
Viper:
Ask: What color would you call the viper?
Example: Light brown
Ask: How might its color help?
Example: Better camouflage to blend in with the sandy area it lives in.
Hermit Crab:
Ask: It has so many legs! What are some of the things they could use their legs for?
Example: Walking, grabbing food, defending itself with its claw
Flying Fish:
Ask: How does a fish get oxygen from the water? Do they have lungs?
Example: No, they have gills to get oxygen from the water.
Mole:
Ask: Where does a mole make its home?
Example: Underground
Ask: What part of its body helps it to make its home?
Example: (It’s claws are good for digging.)
Spider:
Ask: Look at those eyes! What is special about those eyes?
Example: There are 8 of them so they can see in multiple directions.
Hedgehog:
Ask: Why does its hair on its back look different than the hair on its face and side?
Example: The hair on their back is so hard and spiky, called quills, that it helps defend them from predators.
Wrap-up: Pair/share prompt: The Emperor Penguin and Shearwater Bird are two types of animals that are both birds and live in the same habitat, but with very different adaptations. Can you think of two other animals that are in the same category, but have different body structures? (Ex: ladybugs and ants are both insects, but with very different bodies!)
Instruction day 9 (pages 30 - 31): Read and discuss
Summary: Discuss how plants use seeds to reproduce and flowers use bees to assist in pollination.
Lesson Objective: Students discuss reproductive structures in plants and how bees assist in reproduction.
Introduction: I want you to think about a time you saw a flower, picture it in your mind. Does anyone know why a plant would make a flower? How does it help the plant? (A flower is how a plant makes a seed and it needs seeds to make more plants.)
Instructions: Read the text on both pages together. Lead a class discussion using the Guiding Questions.
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Guiding Questions:
Ask: We have two new vocabulary words on the first page. It says that “develop” means to grow and mature. Have you started developing? Have you been eating and growing your body?
Example: Yes, since the day you were born.
Ask: Are you still developing?
Example: Yes, you're still growing!
Ask: The next new word it mentions is “reproduce”, have you made your own children already?
Example: No! You are not ready to be moms or dads yet! You are not ready to reproduce, but many years from now your body will be mature enough to do so.
Ask: Have you ever seen a dog or cat have puppies or kittens before?
Example: When an animal has “babies” it is reproducing.
Ask: Plants do things differently than animals. What do they make to reproduce?
Example: Seeds.
Ask: Those seeds can spread to different places. How are the milkweed’s seeds spread?
Example: Wind.
Ask: They are blown away to a new area so they can grow to become big milkweed plants. What was the new word we just learned that means to grow?
Example: Develop.
Ask: Some plants make flowers first as a way to make seeds, but they need some help to bring everything together. What is an animal that can help flowers?
Example: Bees.
Ask: Can someone help tell me about the friendship between the flowers and the bees?
Example: Note what is correct about the student’s idea and add to it.
Ask: The outside part of the flower will produce pollen and hope it gets mixed with the deeper inner part of another flower so it can produce a seed. But flowers can’t move around and find another flower! It needs help! Who will help them?
Example: Bees! Everyone give me a “Bzzzz!” (Bzzz!)
Ask: In order to get that pollen to travel to another flower it makes nectar in the deepest part of the flower, which attracts bees. Bees need nectar as food. When a bee comes to get the food it steps into the pollen and crawls into the flower part that produces the nectar. After drinking, it goes to another flower and steps in its pollen and drinks its nectar, and so on, all day! It is likely that the bee will bring some pollen from one flower and it will fall off inside the deeper part of another flower. What do we call it when the pollen makes it inside the flower?
Example: Pollination
Ask: Bees will also carry lots of pollen back to the hive for the young bees to eat, how does it carry it?
Example: Using the hairs on its legs.
Wrap-up: Write or pair/share prompt: How is making nectar a good adaptation for the flowers? (The nectar helps attract the help they need with pollination.) A lot of flowers have colors. Do you think the colors are helpful? How? (Flowers' colors advertise to the bees that they have nectar and are ready to be pollinated!)
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Instruction day 10 (pages 32 - 35): Read and discuss
Summary: Today we will be discussing Grandma’s garden and helping her out with some tasks. The children will learn what different plants do by trying to match.
Lesson Objective: Seeing which plants match by reading descriptions of the things that belong in Grandma’s garden.
Introduction: Grandma has lost her glasses and needs our help to arrange the garden she likes!
Instructions:
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The cards are blank on the back so give children scissors to cut out their cards so they can match the plants
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Tell students to read the plant's description on page 35 to get a good idea of what they will be looking for.
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Explain the figure on page 32 while referring to pictures on cut-out cards to compare and contrast different parts of the plant.
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Have children try to match cards to descriptions to fix grandmas garden!
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What is the purpose of thorns in plants like flowers?
Explain: Plants develop different protections like thorns to ward off unwanted bugs and they develop they’re leaves to turn inward so they can collect the most water for themselves.
Ask: What do plants eat? What plants do we eat?
Explain: Plants love water and carbon dioxide that we breathe and in return they give us oxygen to breathe. All fruits and vegetables are plants that we eat. We can even eat some flowers and weeds.
Wrap Up: Plants are amazing to be able to develop all these abilities to help themselves survive and thrive.
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Instruction day 11 (pages 36 - 37): Read, draw, and discuss
Summary: Draw the parts of a plant and learn about Venus Flytraps.
Lesson Objective: Students discuss and diagram basic plant structures. Unique adaptations of the Venus Flytrap are explored.
Needed Materials(optional): Crayons or colored pencils for drawing (may engage more students).
Introduction: How does a plant start? (As a seed in the ground.) Then what happens? (If it gets water and the right temperature, its roots and leaves emerge as it starts to develop.) Today we’re talking about the basics of plants and then we’ll meet a really unique species.
Instructions: Read the first paragraph together. Have students create their own plant starting from the center seed, use Guiding Questions as desired. Read about Venus Flytraps together and ask some Guiding Questions.
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Guiding Questions:
Ask: Create your own pet plant! The seed it started from is already drawn, what goes under the seed?
Example: Roots. It can have stringy roots like grass or a strong center root like a tree, whatever you want.
Ask; We know our plant will have leaves, but what attaches it to those leaves?
Example: Stems. You could have strong stems or twisting ones like a vine.
Ask: We’re going to defend our plant with thorns, do you think it makes more sense to put them on the leaves or on the stems? Or both?
Example: Either is fine, plants can have them in both places.
Ask: What basic things do plants need to survive?
Example: (Water, sun and nutrients from the soil.) Plants mostly need sun and water, but getting nutrients from the soil helps them grow strongly.
Ask: Do you ever take a vitamin? Vitamins help our bodies be stronger than they would be without them.
Read second page:
Ask: Venus Flytraps can’t get their vitamins or nutrients, from the soil. The rain washed all the good stuff away where they live! Since they couldn’t get all the nutrients they wanted from the soil then they have another trick, what do they do?
Example: Trap insects! Their bodies have nutrients.
Ask: How does the Venus Flytrap know the insect is there?
Example: The insect steps on little hairs inside and the plant’s leaves close around it.
Ask: Now a common plant doesn’t usually “eat”, right? It produces its own food using the sunlight, it doesn’t need a mouth. This Venus Flytrap needed a way to trap the insects it needs, so it makes these leaves that act like a mouth! What an interesting adaptation!
Wrap-up: A Venus Flytrap has a mouth-like structure, similar to an animal. What kind of plant structure would you want to have as an adaptation of your own? (A flower to decorate? Leaves so you could always get a snack from the sun? Roots to hold you so you don’t fall?)
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Instruction day 12 (pages 38 - 41): Read and discuss
Summary: Discussing the unique parts of different plants that are carnivorous. Plants eat meat too, they just have to develop unique ways to do so.
Lesson Objective: Studying the different way plants can trap their prey links us to them and teaches us that they are more than just plants but they can have behavior that we study.
Introduction: There are many types of plants and today we get to learn more about Ed’s plants and the ways they have adapted to eat. These plants take advantage of the opportunity that presents itself when insects come for a meal.
Instructions: Read the pages about these plants and have the students write their answers to the questions provided in the text.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What kind of insects do plants eat?
Explain: Insects like flies and ants crawl onto plants and can get trapped and eaten because of this.
Ask: If you were a plant, how would you trap little bugs? How do we get our food?
Explain: We gather plants and animals to eat by growing them ourselves and creating farms.
Wrap Up: Plants can adapt their needs to work best for them even though they don’t have feet to go get what they need.
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Instruction day 13 (pages 42 - 43): Hands on activity: Brine shrimp lab prep
Summary: Introduce brine shrimp and their salty environment. Graph how salty the Great Salt Lake gets compared to different bodies of water.
Lesson Objective: Students learn that brine shrimp can have an internal structure that helps them survive. Students graph the saltiness of different bodies of water.
Materials Needed (optional): Crayons or colored pencils for graphing (may engage more students).
Introduction: Has anyone heard of a place called The Great Salt Lake? Please share with the class what you know about it. Where on the Earth is it? (Utah.) Why is it called the Great Salt Lake? (It is saltier than most lakes you find in nature, it is even saltier than the ocean!) Any guesses as to why it is so much saltier than lakes we have near here? (Salt is a mineral that comes off of the rocks and soil when it rains and washes into the creeks. Creeks can lead to lakes and most lakes then have a creek that also runs water out and eventually to the ocean. Not true for The Great Salt Lake! It has no creeks that leave so the salt stays in one place. The sun can evaporate some water, but the salt always stays behind.)
Instructions: Read the text together. Help students create a bar graph comparing the salt levels of the three bodies of water.
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Brine Shrimp Lab Resources
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Some things can live in the saltwater of the ocean, but most plants and animals that live as far from the ocean as Utah are adapted to freshwater. What happens to you if you drink saltwater?
Example: You become more thirsty!
Ask: These brine shrimp are special, they have found a way to remove the salt from the water so it does not harm them to live in it or drink it. What does the book say helps them do this?
Example: An organ. Sometimes an animal’s adaptations can be inside the body!
Ask: Look at how tiny they are! What do you notice about the brine shrimp’s body?
Example: Long tail, I can see its two big eyes, reminds me of a feather.
Ask: (Demonstrate on a whiteboard if possible.) Do you know what a bar graph looks like? We are going to graph how salty the brine shrimp’s environment is compared to other bodies of water. We will draw a long rectangle, kind of like a skinny box, we call that a bar. Starting from the 0% line and going up from the mark for Great Salt Lake, how high are we drawing the bar?
Example: To 27%.
Ask: If you’re having trouble, ask your neighbor. Can you work together to get the last two bars for Mono Lake and the Pacific Ocean graphed? When most of you are done I will show you what it should look like on the whiteboard. Is that what you did too?
Wrap-up: Pair/share prompt: Mono Lake seems pretty salty too, how much saltier than the ocean does it seem? (About twice as salty.) Do you think brine shrimp live there too? (They do!) Do you think anything eats brine shrimp?
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Instruction day 14 (pages 44 - 45): Hands on Activity: Hatch Brine Shrimp! (Lab Day 1)
Summary: Mix salt and water in a test tube to create a home for brine shrimp.
Lesson objective: Students begin brine shrimp experiment by creating a habitat for them. Students use science tools and measurements to create an appropriate environment.
Materials needed: Salt and water can be poured into graduated cylinders found inside Kea (as many as is appropriate for students to share, water should be room temperature or warmer),
From Kea the Crate: 1 Tedros test tube/student, 1 Pippi pipette/student (can share if needed), 1 Scoopy spoon/student. Graduated Cylinders, Mo the pitcher
Introduction: We are going to hatch our own brine shrimp! We’ll start by making the best environment for them, what would that be? (Saltwater) What are some of the tools we might need to start? (Salt, water, test tube, pipette, and spoon!) I’ll write a list up here and we can get our materials from the Kea Crate.
Instructions: Watch the teacher prep video before the lab to see how to run the lab with students.
On the day of the lab watch the class lab video and set up the tools, salt and water. Use Guiding Questions to move through the lab.
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Go to The Hands-on Lab
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Let’s go through our tools. Hold up your Tedros test tube with the lid (check), Pippi pipette (check) and Scoopy spoon (check). Good! Point to where the salt you’re using is and point to where the water is. My scientists are ready!)
Ask: Can you guess what we’re going to use Pippi pipette for?
Example: To put water in the tube.
Ask: Let’s practice, try pinching the top of the pipette, sticking it in the water and see if water comes up. (Assist as needed.) This is how we are going to fill our test tube to 40 ml. Find the line on your Tedros test tube that says 40 ml and Pippi pipette will help you fill it up to that mark. When you’ve got it we’ll move on.
Ask: The next step is to use Scoopy spoon to measure out one flat spoonful of salt. Pour that into your Tedros test tube. You do not need to stir it, take a second to look at it without any mixing. What do you notice?
Example: The salt sank to the bottom.
Ask: What do you think will happen when it gets mixed?
Example: The salt will dissolve.
We aren’t going to stir it because we are going to shake it! Screw the lid back on and shake it with all you got. Get up out of your chair, jump up and down! (Can even put on music “Shake it like a polaroid picture!”)
Ask: (After at least 1 minute...) What do you notice about the mixture now?
Example: Clear again, but not totally clear like water, a little “cloudy”.
This is the perfect environment for our brine shrimp! You’ll want to find yours later so let’s label it. You each get a piece of tape; we’ll put your name on it and stick it to the side of the tube. Let's set it aside so it’s ready to go. Let’s clean up our spoons and pipettes.
Wrap-up: (Move on to the next microscope activity if you have time, otherwise wrap-up with…)
Write or pair/share prompt: How many brine shrimp do you think could live in your Tedros test tube?
Teacher lab video
Class lab video
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Instruction day 15 (pages 46 - 47): Hands on Activity: Brine Shrimp egg observation (Lab Day 2)
Summary: Watch the lab video. Then students record their observations of dry brine shrimp eggs/salt using a microscope.
Lesson Objective: Students observe dry brine shrimp eggs and salt using a microscope. Students write and draw their observations in their journals. Students introduce brine shrimp eggs to their environment for future observation.
Materials Needed:
- 1-2 tablespoons of brine shrimp eggs poured out on a plate. -- Salt can be put into a container to scoop out and look at.
- From Kea the Crate (1 per student):
-Scoopy spoon, petri dish
-Meeka microscope.
Introduction: When you think about a brine shrimp’s life cycle, how does it start? (Egg) We have brine shrimp eggs we are going to introduce to their habitat today, but first we want to see what they look like as eggs. These eggs are dry! Don’t brine shrimp live in water? (Yes!) Let’s read a little bit about why we often find them dry.
Instructions: Read the text and directions together first. Watch the lab movie then have students gather their tools from Kea the Crate then lead the lab using the Guiding Questions.
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Guiding Questions:
We’ll start by getting our Meeka microscopes. We always carry Meeka with both hands so you should not be carrying anything else when you bring your microscope back to your desk. This is the perfect science tool for us today!
Make sure your Scoopy spoon is dry before you bring it up, grab a petri dish that looks like this (demonstrate) from Kea the Crate. Once you have both the spoon and the dish then you can come to the plate of brine shrimp eggs. You will get plenty of eggs if you just dip the back of the spoon onto the egg plate. Use the petri dish to help carry the eggs back to your desk without spilling them.
Ask: Before you use the microscope, what do you see with your eyes when you look at the eggs?
Example: (Powdery, brown, etc.)
Now let’s try looking with Meeka. Use your journal to draw and write about what you see. (Give lots of time for this step, could write up on the whiteboard that they can start their sentences with “I notice ___”, “I wonder ___” or “It reminds me of ___”)
*You can do the same with observing salt.
Ask: The last thing we’ll do today is the most important step even though it’s just one sentence in your journal. Before we do it, let’s read the directions, what does the last sentence say?
Example: (Wash the brine shrimp eggs off your spoon in the salt water that you prepared earlier.) Gasp! We’re sending our eggs to their new home!
Let’s find the Tedros tubes of salt water we created earlier. We’ll unscrew the lid and carefully dip our spoons in the salt water, trying to get as many eggs into the water as possible. We can use a pipette or even a pencil to try getting the last of the eggs off the spoon and into the tube.
Ask: How should we take care of them?
Example: We need volunteers every day to give them oxygen by adding bubbles to the water with Pippi Pippette a few times a day. We also need to give them a small scoop of this algae powder (use the small end of scoopy spoon) about once a week or more if water is clear.
We can feed them a small scoop right now so it will be ready when they hatch in a few days.
Teacher Lab Video
Class Lab Video
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Instruction day 16 (pages 48 - 49): Hands On Activity: Study your Brine Shrimp! (Lab Day 3)
Editor's note: Do this activity 3-4 days after the previous activity.
Summary: Students observe freshly hatched brine shrimp using a microscope.
Lesson objective: Students note observations of the animal’s structures and behaviors.
Materials needed: Each student’s Tedros tube with hatched brine shrimp
From Kea the Crate: large Moe pitcher (or other container), thermometer (place inside pitcher for measurement at the end of the lab)
(1 per student): Pippi pipette, petri dish, and Meeka microscope.
Introduction: Today we get to check out our shrimp! We’ll be using Meeka microscope to get a great look at the young brine shrimps’ body structures and when we’re done all the shrimp will go into the big Moe pitcher so they have more room to swim around. Let’s start reading on page 33..
Instructions: Read the text and directions together and watch the lab movie. Then pull out your tools and enjoy this amazing experience being scientists!
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Lab Reminders:
Share what you see with your neighbors and look in each
other’s microscopes. Remember, scientists work as teams.
Remember to fill out the Birth Certificate, we want to draw the shrimp in the box and write about it in all that space at the bottom of the page. Ask: Talk to each other, what are you drawing? What are you writing? The line asking about the water temperature is something we will all fill out together once we are done with Meeka.
When you think you are done with your Birth Certificate, show me what you’ve got. Then I would like all the shrimp to end up in the big Moe pitcher so that they have more room to swim. We will feed them a few days from now and I will give you some time to check on them each day. Be sure to clean your tools when you are done!
(Remember to give the students the water temperature reading from the thermometer in the large pitcher before they put away their journals. As soon as the bottom of the thermometer is covered it will give an accurate reading.)
Teacher Lab Video
Class Lab Video
Instruction day 17 (pages 50 - 52): Shrimp Check-up Hands-on Day
Summary: Brine shrimp have their check up. This is another wonderful microscope observation time that can be done any time but around a week later works well.
Lesson objective: Students use microscopes to further investigate their brine shrimp. Students discuss structural changes in their brine shrimp based on visual evidence. Students discuss behaviors they observe.
Materials needed: Moe (or other pitcher) of brine shrimp
From Kea the Crate (1 per student): Pippi pipette, petri dish, Meeka microscope
Introduction: Even though as humans, we don't change much in just 7 days, the brine shrimp have already started to develop! How do you think they might look or behave differently compared to their first couple days after hatching?
Instructions: Read text together. Have students gather tools, pipette up a few brine shrimp from the class container, put them in a petri dish and observe them with the microscope. Write about and draw the brine shrimp, noting changes from previous observations.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Would you say that brine shrimp are herbivores, omnivores or carnivores?
Example: Review what those terms mean if needed. Herbivores.
Ask: What is their only predator at the Great Salt Lake?
Example: Birds
Ask: Does the bird eating lots of microscopic brine shrimp remind you of any other predator? Maybe one that lives in the ocean?
Example: Baleen whales eat krill, tiny shrimp.
Ask: When we get to observe our brine shrimp I want you to notice both their bodies - how have they changed? Do you see any specific structures of their body? And I want you to notice their behaviors - How do they move? How do they interact with other shrimp? Do you see one eating?
Wrap-up: Pair/share prompt: Watch your shrimp for a bit after returning them to the class container. Do the shrimp behave differently in the petri dish than they do in the larger container? How so?
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Instruction day 18 (pages 53 - 54): Pop cards
Summary: Students review vocabulary using their Pop-cards!
Lesson objective: Students demonstrate understanding of vocabulary from the chapter.
Introduction: Students cut out their vocabulary Pop-cards and quiz each other on how much they've retained from the chapter.
Instructions: Have students fill out the pop card definitions and then have them break into groups of 2 or so and quiz each other on vocabulary from their unit using their Pop-cards. Have both students from each pair quiz the other for 10 to 15 minutes.
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Instruction day 19 (pages 55 - 56): Writing Workshop
Summary: Write about an animal adaptation and discuss how helpful different types of evidence are.
Lesson objective: Students write about animal adaptations and how they increase survival. Students discuss how the quality of evidence can impact the observer’s knowledge.
Introduction: We’ve learned a lot about different animals and their adaptations this chapter. Some from paragraph’s we’ve read, some from hands-on observations of our brine shrimp. I liked learning about (some interesting adaptation, ex: penguin’s color pattern), but I also loved getting to watch the shrimp move around using the microscopes. What has been your favorite part?
Instructions: Have students write their answers to the first question and think/pair/share their ideas for the second question. Use Guiding Questions as needed.
Guiding Questions:
This is our last activity for the chapter!
Ask: For the first question, we are thinking of an adaptation an animal has to help it grow or survive. Write about which animal you are choosing, what specific adaptation that animal has that you desire and how that adaptation helps that animal.
Example: It does not have to be an animal from our chapter, any animal can be a great example.
Ask: For our second question you can talk to your neighbors about the difference there is in the type of evidence we use. What is the difference between seeing a photo of an animal or watching that animal live and in person? Can you see adaptations of that animal in both of these ways? Which way will give you more reliable evidence?
Example: (A photo may show adaptations, but watching in person will show behaviors.)
Wrap-up: Pair/share prompt: We can’t travel around to see every organism in the world, but there are a lot of videos available online. Would watching a video be the same as seeing it in person? (A video could document behaviors, but doesn’t fully replace seeing an organism in person because you are only able to see and hear, not smell, feel temperature, etc.)
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Programming Activity:
Summary: Make your brine shrimp move around using key strokes!
Instructions: Click on the picture and follow the instructions on the coding page.
Quiz Link:
Google Forms Quiz: Teachers can access what students understand through this google forms quiz.
Click the link to copy this google form into your personal Google classroom.
Click to copy quiz to your Google classroom.
*No password is required for the quiz*