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Lesson Plan
Virginia Department of Education

Adaptation and Evolution

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Um may be the atomic symbol for confusion, but it won't be needed in this lesson. Scholars rotate through seven stations completing experiments, hands-on activities, writing exercises, and analysis. Stations include material on...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Raven Chapter 54 Guided Notes: Community Ecology

For Students 9th - 12th
Providing a sweeping overview of population and community interactions, this ecology worksheet gets learners thinking. They differentiate between habitat and niche, describe and give exemplars of various animal and plant defenses,...
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Worksheet
4
4
K12 Reader

Hide and Seek

For Students 4th - 5th Standards
Why do certain animals look the way they do? It could be because they have developed camouflage. Kids can read up on camouflage and mimicry and then respond to five questions related to the content of the passage.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Blending Butterflies

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students create camouflage butterflies. In this camouflage lesson plan, students read about the different types of camouflage. Each student in the class chooses a spot in the classroom and creates a camouflaged butterfly. They hang up...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mimicry: An Example of Adaptation

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students are able to explain the relationship between adaptation and ability for survival and reproduction. They are able to give examples of a series of adaptations that would support the idea that evolution is a series of minor...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Camouflage

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders collect insects and various bits of the insects' habitats in order to develop an understanding of how camouflage makes the insect fit to survive in its environment.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Color as Defense

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers explore mimicry and crypsis, participate in hands-on predator-prey activity, and practice calculating averages and graph results in histogram.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Adaptation and Mimicry - Biology

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students compare and contrast adaptations involving camouflage, warning coloration, and mimicry. They explain the relationship between adaptation and ability for survival and reproduction. Students define Batesian and Mullerian mimicry...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mimics Survive -- Camouflaged Reptiles

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students examine mimicry as a survival strategy in repiles. They examine examples of the Mexican milksnake and the coralsnake in attempt to distinguish the differences in them. They discuss other species that use mimicry.
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Handout
McGraw Hill

The Mc Graw Hill Companies, Inc.: Adaptation

For Students 9th - 10th
Evolution, natural selection, sexual selection, coevolution, convergent evolution, mimicry, and coloration, are the topics examined in this thorough site. Assess your comprehension of the material presented by delving into the learning...
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Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Seeing Through Camouflage

For Students 4th - 8th
This interactive feature from the NOVA: "Leopards" Web site presents a wide variety of ways in which animals use coloration to their advantage.
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Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Why Is Yawning Contagious?

For Students 9th - 10th
*Yaaawwwwwn* Did just reading the word make you feel like yawning yourself? Known as contagious yawning, the reasons behind this phenomenon have been attributed to both the physiological and psychological. It's been observed in children...
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Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Mimicry: The Orchid and the Bee

For Students 9th - 10th
In this photograph from Oxford Scientific Films, a horned bee attempts to mate with an Ophrys orchid, which has evolved to resemble a female bee.
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Interactive
PBS

Nova: Seeing Through Camouflage

For Students 9th - 10th
See if you can identify the type of camouflage shown in 12 different animals. Types of camouflage include mimicry, disguise, disruptive coloration,and concealing coloration.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Live Like an Animal

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this activity, students design an innovative human shelter that is inspired and informed by an animal structure. Each group is assigned an animal class, and they gather information about shelters used by the animals in that class....
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Biomimicry: Echolocation in Robotics

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students use ultrasonic sensors and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robots to emulate how bats use echolocation to detect obstacles. They measure the robot's reaction times as it senses objects at two distances and with different sensor threshold...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Copycat Engineers

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This lesson introduces middle schoolers to the idea of biomimicry, or looking to nature for engineering ideas. Biomimicry involves solving human problems by mimicking natural solutions, and it works well because the solutions exist...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Nature Is an Engineering Marvel

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This lesson introduces learners to the concepts of biomicry and sustainable design. Students will learn to illustrate the wisdom of nature by demonstratiing how organisms adapt to their environment.
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Introducing Engineering

For Teachers K - 1st
There is something gross under the cafeteria table. Do you pick it up? Gross! How about we mimic a bird's beak to solve the problem of picking up our trash? This lesson models walking through the first few steps of the Engineering Design...
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Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Biomimicry in Engineering

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This lesson focuses on the concept of Biomimicry and students learn how engineers have incorporated structures and methods from the living world in products and solutions for all industries. Students then work in teams to develop a...
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Activity
Sheppard Software

Sheppard Software: Walking Sticks

For Students 9th - 10th
This site gives an in-depth description of a walking stick, including its behavior, appearance, reproduction, and classification. The site includes photos and illustrations and an interactive quiz to test your understanding.
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Handout
Other

M. Tevfik Dorak, m.d., ph.d.: Mimicry

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes what mimicry is. Describes the different kinds of mimicry found and by whom.
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Handout
University of Arizona

University of Arizona: Insect Mimicry

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site from the University of Arizona, the two main types of mimicry, batesian and muelleries are discussed as they apply to butterflies. Discusses what each type is and how they are different.
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Website
Morning Earth

All Lives Transform: Adaptation: Mimicry

For Students 9th - 10th
Students examine the Biology topic of adaptation. The tutorial includes definitions, examples, and pictures on mimicry.