Adaptation:  A specific feature that allows a plant or animal to live in a particular environment

Behavioral Adaptation: Actions animals take to survive in their environments. Examples are hibernation, migration, and instincts.

Camouflage: A way of blending into the surroundings so that an organism cannot be seen. Also called “protective coloration.”

Characteristics: Features that make plants and animal different from each other.  Examples are beak size, coloration, how animals move.

Ecosystem:  a community of living orgasnisms and their interrelated physical and chemical environment.

Environment:The living and nonliving things that surround an organism.

Hibernation:When organisms become inactive for a period of time for survival, such as during cold winter months.

Migration:When organisms move from one environment to another to find food or a mate.

Mimicry: When an organism resembles the appearance, actions, or sounds of another organism.

Physical Adaptation: A characteristic in a plant or in an animal’s body that helps it to survive in its environment. Examples are protective coloration (camouflage) and the ability to retain water.

In this lesson, students will learn that evolution allows animals to develop specific adaptations to survive in their environment.  They will be able to differentiate between physical and behavioral characteristics.  Students will learn the importance of adaptations, and how these many adaptations enable the survival of a species. 

• Identify adaptations that help animals survive in various environments.

• Describe plant and animal adaptations that are important to survival.

• Describe the difference between pysical and behavioral characteristics.

• Identify physical and behavioral characteristics.

160 minutes/ 4 class periods

Pictures of animals and their environments. (Pictures from Animal Adaptations Picture Word Sort PowerPoint can be used)

Powerpoint to review word sort (Animal Adaptations Picture Powerpoint)

Pliers, tweezers, chopsticks, spoons, and clothespins

Cooked rice, cooked spaghetti, bird seed, and peanuts

Class copies of Bird Beak Adaptation Lab (Bird Adaptation Lab Report)

Overview Animal Adaptations PowerPoint (Animal Adaptations PowerPoint)

Copies of Animal Facts (Animal Adaptations Animal Facts)


Copies of Physical and Behavioral Adaptations Chart to outline characteristics  (Physical and Behavorial Adaptations Chart )
Copies of environment cards for final project (Animal Adaptations Environment Cards)

Copies of final project requirements (Animal Adaptations Final Project)

 Rubric for scoring final project (Animal Adaptations Final Project Rubric )


Animal Adaptations Adapted Quiz

Animal Adaptations Quiz

Copies of Tundra Probe for formative assessment purposes (Tundra Probe)

Introducing the Activity

The students will be instructed to match the animals with the environments in which the animals live using pictures from Animal Adaptations Picture Word Sort.  The students will use their prior knowledge of living and nonliving things in an environment to match the animals to their environments.  Although they may already know where the animals live, this activity will get them thinking about why they live there. The teacher will state, these animals need to find a habitat that allows them to survive in this environment and explain why it is best.  In groups the students will match the animals to their environment.  Then, together discuss why they are in this environment.  Using the Animal Adaptations Word Sort PowerPoint, students will share their reasoning with a whole class discussion. The class will use their discussion to formulate a definition of adaptation. 

Bird Beak Adaptation Lab

The teacher will guide a Bird Adaptation experiment, setting the purpose that animals' body structures help them adapt to their environment. This experiment will be taught by using cooperative groups in a heterogeneous setting. Before beginning the experiment, the teacher will brainstorm with the class different shapes of birds’ beaks, drawing these on the overhead or board. The teacher will then pose the question, “Why are there different shapes of beaks?” She will then draw students' attention to the Bird Beak Adaptation Lab report.  The teacher will clarify any questions about the table at this time. The teacher will give each group the supplies listed in the Bird Adaptation Materials List. She will then instruct the students to use each tool to gather the various foods and record their observations on their table. Once the groups have been given ample time to complete their table, the teacher will discuss their findings as a whole class. She will then ask the students to independently answer the open-ended questions listed at the bottom of the lab report.  Teacher will guide the class in a discussion of the open ended questions, leading students to see that the shape of a bird's beak (the tools) is directly related to the environment that it lives in and the food it is able to acquire.  The expectation is that the students will discover which tools (beaks) work best to gather food for survival and understand that this is an adaptation for birds to survive in their environment.

 Physical and Behavioral Adaptations Chart

Teacher will use the Animal Adaptations PowerPoint to introduce other animal adaptations. Through class discussion, teacher will draw student attention to the difference between physical and behavioral adaptations. Students will again be placed into their heterogeneous cooperative learning groups where they will be assigned one of the animals from the Physical and Behavioral Adaptations chart to research using the Animal Adaptations Facts.  Groups will be required to create a presentation on chart paper illustrating their animal's adaptations.   Upon completing presentations on chart paper, groups will take a gallery walk where they will walk around the room and review other groups' presentations to learn about other animals' adaptations.  The class will then come back together to complete the Physical and Behavioral Adaptations Chart. 

Final Project

Students will design an animal that could survive in the environment they selected from the environment cards.  The animal design must include at least 2 physical adaptations that enable the animal to survive in its environment,  at least 1 behavioral adaptation that enables the animal to survive in its environment, and a description of how each adaptation enables the animal to survive. Students will also be required to draw and name their designed animal.  Teacher can check student understanding by using the Animal Adaptations Final Project Rubric. 

Throughout the lesson, use entrance and exit slips to check for understanding.  Encourage students to explain the concept they learned that day.  Use a Gots and Needs chart where students post what they got from the lesson, and what they still need to further their understanding. 

Observe student performance on the Tundra Probe Activity.  Collect and assess the probe. The information each student presents will show you whether the student understands the concept of adaptations.

Use the teacher created quizzes (adapted and regular version) to gauge student understanding.  If you find students are repetitively missing a certain question, go back reteach that concept. 

Animal Planet Top 10 Animal Adaptations

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/a-list/creature-countdowns/adaptations/adaptations-01.html

Brain Pop video about natural selection.  (Content in this video relates to shape of bird beaks)https://www.brainpop.com/science/ecologyandbehavior/naturalselection/preview.weml

Bird Beak Website Showing Multiple Birds and the shapes and sizes of their beaks