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Sixth Grade, Zoology Lesson Plans (8 results)

Animals have developed an amazing variety of body plans, behaviors, and strategies in order to succeed in the struggle for survival. Explore topics ranging from regeneration, camouflage, animal migration, how to attract hummingbirds, and more.

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Flowers Seeking Pollinators
Lesson Plan Grade: 3rd-7th
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9 reviews
"European honey bee extracts nectar" by John Severns In this activity, students learn about plant reproduction and use real data to construct explanations about which flowers are the most attractive to different pollinators. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • 3-LS1-1. Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
  • 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
  • MS-LS1-4. Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants, respectively.
Is Coral a Plant or Animal?
Lesson Plan Grade: 2nd-6th
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"Close-up of Coral Polyps" © 2009 Mark Yokohama By building an edible coral polyp, students will learn the anatomy of coral and be able to explain why corals are animals, rather than plants. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
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Scientific Method: How Do Scientists Make Discoveries?
Video Lesson Grade: 3rd-8th
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16 reviews
This lesson will introduce students to the scientific method using a fun, hands-on activity about the role of animal camouflage in evolution. During the activity, students will practice each step of the scientific method including doing background research, making a hypothesis, conducting an experiment, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. By going through this process, students will also learn how camouflage helps animals survive. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • 3-LS4-2. Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
  • 3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
  • MS-LS4-4. Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals' probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
  • MS-LS4-6. Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
Could Climate Change Impact the Mosquito-Human Disease Ecosystem?
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-12th
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Scientists are concerned that climate change could cause the spread of mosquito populations that carry diseases like malaria, West Nile virus, Zika virus, and dengue fever. In this lesson plan, your students will access real-world data on mosquitoes at different locations throughout the United States, and examine the effects of temperature on mosquito populations. Remote learning adaptation: This lesson plan can be conducted remotely. Students can work independently on the Explore section of… Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  • HS-LS2-1. Use mathematical and/or computational representations of phenomena or design solutions to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
How Stable is Your Food Web?
Lesson Plan Grade: 5th-9th
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"Giant Kelp Forest" © 2010 Tom Thai Could you describe the kelp forest food web as a system? Your students will design and use a simple model to test cause and effect relationships or interactions concerning the functioning of a marine food web, ranking their hypothetical ecosystems according to their stability when faced with a natural or man-made disturbance. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
  • MS-LS2-3. Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
  • MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  • HS-LS2-6. Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
Using Empirical Data in the Classroom: Raptor Migrations!
Lesson Plan Grade: 5th-10th
"Osprey with Gulls" © 2014 Lee Jaffe Why do birds migrate? How do seasonal changes in primary productivity influence the behaviors of higher order consumers like raptors? Visualize and explore the connectedness of organisms within and across ecosystems in this teacher-guided activity. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-LS2-2. Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
  • MS-LS2-3. Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
  • MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Biomimicry: Echolocation in Robotics
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
Students use ultrasonic sensors and LEGO© MINDSTORMS© EV3 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 values, and again after making adjustments to optimize its effectiveness. Like engineers, they gather and graph data to analyze a given design (from the tutorial) and make modifications to the sensor placement and/or threshold… Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
How Big is Big? Understanding Scale in Nature
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-12th
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"He's too tiny to measure up."© 2006 Patty O'Hearn Kickham Some organisms, like whales and redwood trees, are so large that it's hard for us to picture just how big they are! In this lesson, students practice mathematics and computational thinking to create scale models of themselves, and then apply these skills to create models of other large organisms. This activity works best when stretched out… Read more
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