HyperSlides are digital lessons/units that help students learn the material in a way that is engaging and inquiry-based. Students will work together to complete a HyperSlides unit centering around animal adaptations for standards in grades 3-5. Students will work creatively and collaboratively with a variety of Course of Study standards that engage students through using Google Slides and a Hyperlinks to assist in the understanding of animal adaptations. This project will take several class periods to complete. After an introduction to the Hyperslides, students are encouraged to work at their own pace, but Hyperslides can be assigned on a daily basis.
This Lesson Plan was created in partnership with the Birmingham Zoo.
This lesson is meant to be used as a culminating project after students have learned about different biomes. Students will start out by separating different plants into their respective biomes based on their characteristics. Then students will create a species that is adapted to survive in an assigned biome.
This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
This learning activity explores the likelihood of an organism's ability to survive on Mars. Students will view the website https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-2020/en/ to gather information and write opinion pieces titled "Can Life be Sustained on Mars?". Students should be able to support their argument with evidence for or against the likelihood of an organism's ability to survive when compared to the resources on Mars. Students must have knowledge of how to write an opinion piece prior to this activity. Prior knowledge regarding what organisms must have in order to survive is needed.
This resource was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
Voki enables users to express themselves in their own voice using a talking character/avatars. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of people or characters… animals, monsters, etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice, which is added via microphone, upload, or phone. In addition, Voki will create a voice for your avatars from the text you enter. Voki lives on your websit, blog, or social network profile. You will also be able to download it to most video supported phones.
In this lesson, students think about what might happen to plants and animals if their environment changed and they were faced with conditions to which they were not well adapted. First, students read The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry. Then they watch a video about camouflage and learn that praying mantises are well suited for life in the rain forest. Next, students play a predator/prey game to simulate what might happen to the praying mantis if the rain forest were cut down. Finally, they use a Web activity to explore what would happen to living things if the concentration of oxygen in the air changed.
Players strive to create a balanced mangrove ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a mangrove swamp depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.
Players strive to create a balanced desert ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a desert depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.
Players strive to create a balanced rainforest ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a rainforest depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.
Natural resources are things occurring in nature, like air, water, sunlight, and crops, that can be used to fulfill a need. Some natural resources, like metals, plastics, fossil fuels, and old-growth forests, are non-renewable, meaning they cannot be replaced in our lifetime.
The classroom resource provides a slide show that will identify natural resources and explain how some resources are renewable and non-renewable. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
Players take on the role of baby groupers, fish whose young grow up in the shelter of mangrove roots, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Their goal is to swim into open water to find food like shrimp—without falling prey to hungry predators like sharks and herons.
Players identify and remove invasive species from ecosystems around the world, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. They must act quickly before the invasive species use up all the resources.
In this Martha Speaks interactive story students discover how plants and animals depend on each other in an ecosystem. Fallen leaves decay; earthworms eat the leaves and fertilize the dirt. Then trees use the fertilized soil to grow. When used as a part of Martha’s True Stories Buddies Program, buddy pairs engage with the interactive story and then talk and write as they draw a habitat they have seen that includes an ecosystem. To familiarize yourself with the program, begin by reading the Martha's True Stories Buddies Program: Overview.
Players strive to create a balanced mountain ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a mountain ecosystem depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.
There are two main types of aquatic ecosystems: freshwater and saltwater. The main difference between these two ecosystems is, you guessed it, saltiness. Oceans, rivers, swamps, bogs, and streams are all aquatic ecosystems.
The classroom resource provides a video that will describe the different organisms that inhabit freshwater and saltwater ecosystems. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
The classroom resource provides a video that will describe how certain environmental habitats can encourage or discourage the growth of a species' population. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
Activate Creature Powers! Inspired by the WILD KRATTS, in this activity children will be challenged to create PBS KIDS ScratchJr projects that explore different animals and their unique behaviors and traits.
Children will learn how to create projects, add characters, and how to use the programming blocks to make their characters animate and move on the screen. They will explore coding and computational thinking practices as they utilize technology as a tool for creativity, expression, and learning with the PBS KIDS ScratchJr app.
This lesson uses books by April Pulley Sayre to help students explore how animals eat plants or other animals for food—or the food chain. This lesson should build on students' understanding of the concept that species depend on one another and on the environment for survival. It will do this by combining the study of two of Ms. Sayre's books, Trout Are Made of Trees and Vulture View, with hands-on activities to help reinforce the concepts being taught. In order to do this lesson, students should already have some prerequisite knowledge of food chains and food webs.
This lesson uses the book >Sisters & Brothers: Sibling Relationships in the Animal World by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page to explore the sibling relationships of different animals. In the book, the authors describe the sibling relationships of 19 animals and how they are alike and unlike other sibling relationships. While the book teaches children about the variety of relationships in the animal kingdom, it also includes other facts about animals, such as what they eat, their size, and their habitats in the world. The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the great variety of organisms found in the animal world and their interdependence.
This lesson uses the book Because of an Acor, by Lola Schaefer and Adam Schaefer with illustrations by Fran Preston-Gannon. The book paints the ecological relationships within a forest with a broad brush. It starts with an illustration of an acorn and proceeds to connect to a tree, a bird, a seed, a flower, a fruit, a chipmunk, a snake, a hawk, a cautious squirrel, and back to an acorn, and then finally to a forest.
The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the interdependent relationship between a bird, the Marbled Murrelet, and the environment of old growth forests, such as redwood trees. This lesson makes use of the book called A Seabird in the Forest: The Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet, written by Joan Dunning. It has a role-playing kinetic component—kids move as birds between two habitats you make.
The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand that organisms have basic needs that need to be met in order to survive. This lesson is based on the book A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens by Melissa Caughey. The book introduces students to animal husbandry by providing a thorough guide to raising chickens. Each chapter focuses on the basic needs of chickens, including their requirements for food, water, nutrients, health, and protection from predators, pests, and disease.
In this lesson, biodiversity is introduced by having students identify and talk about what they know about the various habitats around them, including the amazing variety of life. Using online resources, they identify the basic components necessary for biodiversity, the critical and countless benefits of habitats, as well as the serious present and future threats to their ongoing existence.
This lesson is based on the book Treecology: 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Trees and Forests by Monica Russo. This lesson engages students in the exploration of trees and their interactions with wildlife through several hands-on outdoor activities that promote observation and analysis, writing and discussion, and nature literacy skills. Students will explore how trees are important players in woodland ecosystems, supporting a diverse community of plants and animals.