Download Adaptions Activity

Life Science: Living Things
What does it take to be living?
*In your notebook or on back of notes, write down 2 or 3 characteristics that you believe an
organism needs to live.
- Share with your tablemate and then with the class.
1.
Living things are organized
into small units called cells.
Nerve cell
2.
Muscle cell
Plant cell wall
Living things respond to stimuli – react to outside activity or internal bodily needs –
food, water, or bathroom. Example – cat runs towards the can opener or being
tickled.
3.
Living things use energy – either directly or indirectly from the sun – plants that
photosynthesize and animals that consume other living things
4.
Living things reproduce –
Living things make more of their kind.
Bacteria
5.
Puffball
Frog
Living things grow and develop – organisms change as they grow. Life span of
organisms vary from 1 day (mayflies) to 180 years (land tortoise).
Life Processes
Gets Energy
Uses Energy
Grows
Reproduces
Gets rid of waste
Reacts to Stimulus
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
bread Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
tree
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
rope
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
cat
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
mold
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
TV
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
Yes or No
rock
Answer each question as a class. If every answer in a row is yes, the object is living.
What do living things need?
1.
A place to live
2.
Water
3.
Food
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giWqEPNLtBo Cookie Monster Who’s alive?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcu81UgTBFs Mr. Parr 6 Characteristics of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvMBJZLEwFs 9 Characteristics of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld7F-MBNesE&list=PL0F00C5204BF9C0AE Dunder: 8wks to 1
yr in 40 secs
How are living things classified?
Grocery stores are organized. Libraries are organized. Menus are organized. Living things are
organized too. Classification of living things occurred more than 2000 years ago when
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, classified living things as either plant or
animal, and then even smaller groups, for animals, hair or no hair, four legs or fewer legs. In the
late 1700s, Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist, developed a new system. It was based on
organisms with similar structures and was accepted and used by most scientists of the day.
Today, scientists use a similar, but more complex, method of classification. The method used
today groups organisms into kingdoms - grouping together all forms of life having certain
fundamental characteristics in common and each sub-category gets more and more specific.
Example: Dog
Kingdom -
Animalia (animal)
Phylum – Chordata (mostly vertebrates)
Class – Mammalia (mammals)
Order - Carnivora
Family - Canidae
Genus - Canis
Species – Lupus (wolf)
Subspecies – familiaris (dog)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnF_UdPbJZ0&list=PLDFAAB53FAC40EF9D Mr. Parr
Classification of Animals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPBA4a6NjU&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Classification
Song to Yankee Doodle Dandy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya-7JsIna2E More Classification Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqxomJIBGcY Classification of Living Things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0cIfO4UeZE Classification (grocery store)
Does The Key Fit?
In this activity, you will observe physical characteristics of a diverse group of beans and then
classify them into increasingly specific groups. Classifying animals helps distinguish the
differences or diversity of animals. By exploring the diversity of life on Earth, scientist and
regular people can discover how plants and animals are adapted for survival.
Activity directions:
1.
Each group will receive a bag of assorted beans and a bean flow chart.
2.
You will classify the beans in your bag with observable physical characteristics
(big, small, round, long) and should progress from general to specific.
3.
Depending on your classifications, you may or may not use all the brackets or you
may need to add more spaces.
4.
Once all groups have finished, and with teacher direction, discuss your chart with
your neighbors.
In this activity, you have created a dichotomous key (dichotomous means dividing into two
parts). Scientists use the keys to determine small differences between different species, such
as different types of birds, for example, red birds. Is it a Cardinal
or a Scarlet Tanager?
Activity: Charting Diversity
In this activity, you will pick cards from a bag which will create an animal, but you will have to do
some detective work to figure out what animal you have created!
Directions: Charting Diversity
1.
Taking turns with your partner, draw a slip of paper from each bag and record the
label in the appropriate column. Do this until you have completed the chart and all
the slips are gone (remember to put the slips back into the bag once you are done).
2.
Once your chart is complete, you will need to do some detective work with the
iPads to find the animal that fits all three categories. If one of your category
selections if extremely difficult or impossible, you may choose again.
3.
Once research is complete, be prepared to present your findings to the class. Be
prepared to say how each species is especially suited for the environment it lives
in.
Where it Lives
How it Moves
What it “Wears”
Name of Animal
ADAPTATIONS
An adaptation is any structure, process, or behavior that helps an organism survive in its
environment. Animals and plants meet these needs in a variety of ways. Adaptions help
determine which individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce.
Watch the following video and write down the different adaptations mentioned in the video.
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/animals/animal-adaptations.htm
adaptations info video
*Class Discussion on adaptions
Adaptions could be physical changes to the animal’s body or behavioral changes in how a society
of animals or an individual animal does things in their daily lives to survive. Adaptions are a
result of evolution, which is a change in species over a long period of time. Sometimes genes
mutate or changes by accident and this change is a good thing. Some behaviors are instinctive –
unlearned and born with the knowledge or learned through observation.
Adaptions (list is incomplete)
Physical
Behavioral
Webbed feet
Migration
Sharp Claw
Hibernation
Large beaks
Being Dormant
Wings
Camouflage
Feather
Nocturnal
Fur
Defense
Scales
Pack hunting
Blubber
Herds/Schools
Small or large body parts
Raising young
Coloring
Size
Mimicry
Natural Selection: organisms with traits best suited to their environment are more likely to
survive and reproduce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N0wVq4nUBU Mr. Parr Adaptions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpdoDBYuHIA 25 Camouflaged Animals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRX2JtKFUzk&playnext=1&list=PL5A33ED662E2970D4
Adaptions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwCi5y_QphY Plant adaptions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msTGoL-hGY0 Adaptions in Yellowstone
Adaptions Activity:
Animals and their Adaptations to the environment
We have discussed physical and behavioral adaptions that help and animal survive.
It is the future, the year 3000, and it is now possible for humans to build planets, and
genetically engineer or create plants and animals to live on that planet. You are one of the
scientists working on the animals, and it is your job to design and create an animal which will be
perfectly suited to its environment on this new planet.
Task: You need to pick one of the following environments of already created planets and create
an animal which is going to be strong and resilient enough to survive in that environment. You
need to consider how this animal is going to stay warm or cool, what it is going to eat, how it is
going to get its food and water, and how it is going to care for its young to make sure they
survive. Your animal must FIT INTO the existing food chain – it cannot be the ultimate
predator (the one which can eat everything else and nothing can eat it).
ENVIRONMENTS
Select 1 of the following:
1: This planet is dark and cold most of the time. It is very mountainous. It rains almost all day.
Because of the wet, dark conditions, the only plants that grow well are small mosses and
funguses. Animals on this planet include a type of mouse, a nocturnal hunting large cat, fish, and
a variety of insects.
2: This planet is dry and hot. Most of the planet is flat. Water is found in underground streams
but there is little water on the surface of the planet. Most of the planet’s surface is covered in
sand, although there are patches of dry grass. When plants can get their roots down into the
water table, they grow into tall trees with leaves at the top but not along the trunk. Plants
which are not connected to the water table are small and dry, but they are edible. Animals on
this planet include insects, a species of birds which roost in the high trees, a sand-colored
lizard and a type of rat.
3. This planet is tropical: wet and hot. Most of the planet is covered by rainforest. The planet is
very flat. Water collects in large pools and lakes which have water in them all year ’round. A
species of poisonous plant grows thickly on the ground. The spines of this plant are poisonous,
and any animal which steps on one is sure to die. The vegetation is plentiful, and includes leaves,
fruits and nuts. Animals include carnivorous snakes, varieties of insects, monkeys, fish and
birds.
4. This planet has a moderate climate. It never gets very hot or very cold, but stays mild all
year ’round. It rains for part of the year and the water forms pools and lakes which dry up
towards the end of the year and then the planet is very dry. The planet is partly mountainous
and partly flat. Vegetation includes tall trees with high leaves and fruit, and a smaller plant
which bears nuts. However, these nuts are inside hard shells which need to be removed before
the nut can be eaten. Animals include rats and mice which live underground, insects, and birds
that nest in the tall trees, slow moving mammals which also live in the trees and a species of
carnivorous nocturnal wolf.
When you are designing your animal consider the following:
-Size
-What does it eat?
-How will it catch/get food and water?
-How will it keep warm/cool?
-Where will it shelter?
-How will it protect/defend itself from attackers?
-What else needs to be considered?
-How does it care for its young?
You will need to write about your animal on a sheet of notebook paper (not from your notebook)
with complete sentences and using proper grammar and mechanics. On a separate piece of
white, lineless paper, you need to draw a neatly colored picture (no sharpies or markers) of your
creature. You can create a legend at the bottom of your drawing indicating the adaptions of
your animal. Give your animal a name and write it at the top of the paper.
You will present your animal in class.
Assessment:
·Has the student fulfilled all parts of the task?
·Has the student chosen features which allow the animal to survive in this environment?
·Is it neatly presented and labeled?
Name_________
Neat Mechanics Animal fits
Animal ________
Environment
No mistakes (3pts)
1 or 2 mistakes (2 pts)
3 or more mistakes (1 pt)