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Zoology Lesson Plans (16 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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Animal Habitats
Lesson Plan Grade: Kindergarten
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44 reviews
In this lesson, students play a game. Each classroom corner represents a habitat. After selecting an animal card, students have to move to the matching habitat while acting out the animal displayed on their card. By explaining why they selected a certain habitat, students realize that a habitat is a place that helps an animal survive. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
  • 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
Invent an Insect
Lesson Plan Grade: 2nd-5th
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8 reviews
"Grasshopper" by Ryan Wood There are thousands of species of insects in our world, and each are adapted to survive in their habitat. In this activity, students will learn what an insect is and what some of their adaptations are. Then they will put their knowledge into play by "creating" an insect that is adapted to live in their assigned environment. Read more
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Flowers Seeking Pollinators
Lesson Plan Grade: 3rd-7th
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10 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.
Make a Miniature Habitat
Lesson Plan Grade: Kindergarten-2nd
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9 reviews
Get creative with your students in this hands-on lesson plan! Students will use mostly natural materials to build a shoebox habitat that mimics a real-life habitat for an animal of their choice. As they present their miniature habitats to each other, students realize that not all habitats are suitable for all animals. Each animal species needs the resources of a specific habitat to survive. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • K-ESS-3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
  • 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.>/li>
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.
Water Striders: Survival Adaptations
Lesson Plan Grade: 3rd
How do water striders skip across the surface of the water? What advantage does this give them over other insects that helps them survive in their environment? Your students will find out in this lesson as they build their own insects from pieces of wire, and see which ones sink and which ones float. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • 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.
Butterfly Algorithms
Lesson Plan Grade: Kindergarten-3rd
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Computational thinking is a problem-solving process that is used in everyday life as well as computer programs. In this lesson, students apply their computational thinking skills to explore the life cycle of a butterfly. They'll create an algorithm, or set of instructions, to model the life cycle of a butterfly. They will write this algorithm using conditionals and then program it on a computer. Learning Objectives Students will: Analyze the life cycle of a butterfly. Develop an algorithm… Read more
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.
Is Coral a Plant or Animal?
Lesson Plan Grade: 2nd-6th
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5 reviews
"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.
What Animals Need to Survive
Lesson Plan Grade: Kindergarten
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32 reviews
At some point, many children wish for a pet animal to play with and care for. But what does it take to keep an animal alive and healthy? In this engaging lesson plan, children will act out adopting a pet and shopping for items based on its needs. As they bring their items together, they will notice that every animal needs food, water, shelter, and air to survive. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
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