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Diversity And Adaptations Of Organisms
Eighth graders study how and why animals are classified into eight groups in the animal kingdom. They work together to identify organisms. They use the key to determine the phylum for the included problems.
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Home Sweet Home
Students examine the change in the diversity of animals living in an area before and after development. In order to do this, students need to have access to an area near their school which is undeveloped. A good, "real life" lesson.
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Dissect with Respect
Students, through exercises and discussions, examine ethics involved in the process of choosing and using laboratory animals, respect for the animal they dissect and how to behave in an ethical manner as they dissect various lab specimens.
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Biodiversity in Illinois-Pond Habitats
Second graders construct a pond habitat in the classroom using a small swimming pool partially filled with water, real cattails, a tree log adjoining, and plastic animal life appropriate to a pond setting. They examine the frog in detail...
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Centipede or Millipede?
Students discuss millipedes and centipedes in terms of their classification as arthropod. Using a diagram, students categorize and compare and contrast the characteristics of millipedes and centipedes based on their discussion of...
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Termite Trail Marking Behavior
Students examine termites and their trail-marking behaviors. They draw lines on paper with various ink pens and experiment to see which types of ink the termites follow--or which inks do and do not elicit trail marking behavior.
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What's in Our Woods?
Students observe their local forest and document the change that occurs over the school year. For this forestry lesson, students utilize a GPS to mark a certain area of the woods as their study area for the remainder of the year....
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"For the Birds" [part I]
Young scholars identify birds that appear in Chinese and Japanese art, learning about
their physical characteristics, classifying them according to scientific principles, and exploring their habitats and migration patterns. This is part...
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Writing a Book About Farm Life
Second graders listen to the book, Pigaroom carefully. They create lists of animals that may be on the farm and then write their own books about farm life. They proofread their stories using editing checklists and exchange their paper...
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Adaptations To the Environment
Students design and construct an imaginary animal that is perfectly adapted to a particular type of biome. They give the animal a scientific name, place it in a phylum and write descriptions about its behavior, reproduction, foraging,...
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The Rat Experiment
Fifth graders observe two albino rats and write their observations in a science journal for two weeks. In rotation groups, they complete the necessary tasks to keep the rats fed and clean. They discuss the importance of eating healthy...
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Polar Food Web Comparison
Seventh graders practice the evaluation component of the scientific method while comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of the food chains and webs of polar animal life. They study about classification and ecology...
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Collared Peccary (Javelina)
In this animal facts worksheet, students learn about the only wild, native, pig like animal found in the United States. Students learn facts about the Collard Peccary by reading the worksheet.
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Catch as Catch Can
Young scholars investigate insects. For this insect analysis lesson, students catch insects using nets they make. They identify the insects they catch and create a chart to show the numbers and varieties. This lesson includes a...
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Circulatory Systems
Excellent diagrams, labels and summaries make this resource be valuable to your students throughout the topic of circulation. All types of circulation vessels are explained, their structure and function is detailed, and the overall...
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Circulatory Systems
A slideshow that covers the all-important details related to basic human circulation. The reasoning for exchange of material methods is presented and then labeled diagrams of the main human transfer systems are shown, along with...
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Bears
Students complete a variety of bear-related activities. They sort and graph teddy bears, distinguish between real and non-real bears and research bear life cycles and habitats.
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Human Body Corp.
Learners investigate body systems by participating in a role-play activity. Third, fourth, and fifth graders pretend that they are an organ or system of the human body, and they must write a letter to the body "corporation" discussing...
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Desert Plant Detectives
Students examine and categorize plants in their own schoolyard desert garden and then observe other plant areas of their schoolyard.
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Appearances Are Deceiving
Young scientists study creeks around their area to see how clean the water really is. One way to tell is by the invertebrate populations that are present. This lesson introduces a game which learners simulate a variety of species found...
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Plant Diversity and Distribution
Students construct a defined plot on school grounds and observed patterns in plant life. They count trees, shrubs, cacti and record on a data sheet. They compare data and generate a plant diversity overlook for their school.
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Bird Banners
Middle schoolers create banners for their classroom that contain the same information as field guides.
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Bat Ecology
Students, through hands on games and activities, discover how bats live and how bats benefit ecosystems. They play a game designed to show them how echolocation works and another to show how mother bats locate their young through their...
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Adaptations to Environments with Mammals
Fifth graders, after viewing a PowerPoint on different mammals, analyze what a biome is. Then they choose a mammal to research and go outside to feel the grass and leaves and hypothesize about which biome they live in as well as its...