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