Lion Country Safari - School Programs



School Programs

Click on the link below to return to the list of available School Programs	Animal Adaptations This one-hour workshop will help students understand and define animal adaptations based on habitat, competition, and functions in nature. The objective of this program is to stimulate student interest in animal adaptation as well as to enhance critical thinking skills. This workshop has both pre- and post-visit classroom activities. These activities are designed to enhance each student's knowledge of the topic to be covered. Meets Sunshine State Standards Grades: Pre-K - 2nd Grades: 3rd - 5th Grades: 6th - 8th Grades: 9th - 12th Animal Adaptations Classroom Activities: Busy Bodies: K-2nd Grade Objectives: Investigate animal body structures Investigate animal sizes Determine a correlation between an animal's shape and size to its environment Useful Vocabulary: Beak, horn, antler, fin, trunk, scales, scutes, carapace, plastron bridge, prehensile, fur, camouflage, keratin. Lesson Preparation: Display pictures of a parrot, snake, elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe and chimpanzee. Teachers Guided Questions: Which animals have large bodies? Which animals have small bodies? Name animals with unusual body shapes. Lesson: Go over the Teacher Guided Questions discussing animal features and body types. Display a picture of an elephant and ask, "What if an elephant had webbed feet? What if it did not have a trunk? What if it was the size of a lion?" Try this question with other animals in addition to the elephant. Discuss how various animals like the elephant have unique body structures. How do these unique body structures help it survive in its environment? What makes these animals' body structures unique? Dinnertime: 3rd-7th Grade Objectives: Investigate birds' beaks and mouths Determine the similarities and differences of animals with beaks and other types of mouths Make informed inferences about an animals' diet based upon observation of mouth-structure Useful Vocabulary: Browser, grazer, crop, ruminant, herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, bill, and beak Lesson Preparation: Pictures of various animals with different mouth types: white rhinoceros, parrot, alligator, snake, fish, giraffe. Teacher Guided Questions: What are the functions of the beak? How is a beak different from the mouths of other animals? What does the shape of the mouth tell about an animal? How does an animal's mouth affect its food options? What would happen if all animals had the same mouth parts? Lesson: Discuss the different-shaped moths of animals. The mouth is an adaptation for each animal according to the food it eats. The white rhinoceros has a square lip so it can easily eat grass along the ground. A bird's beak may be hooked for tearing food or long and narrow for sipping nectar from flowers. Ask students to name animals with mouths that are different, i.e. long, round, short, pointed. Record the students' answers. Divide the students into pairs and have them observe various animal pictures. Ask the students to make an inference about the type of food the animal eats based upon its mouth. Record and compare answers. Animal Adaptations Activity: 8th-12th Grade Objectives: Investigate how people adapt to environmental changes. Investigate how animals adapt to environmental changes. Compare and contrast how various animals have adapted to their environments. Useful Vocabulary: Reptile, Mammal, Amphibian, Marsupial, Fish, Bird, Adaptation, Carapace, Scutes, Prehensile-Tail, Plastron, Bridge, Warm-Blooded, Cold-Blooded. Lesson Preparation: Pictures of various weather conditions. Pictures of various environments such as swamplands, mountains, beaches. Pictures or illustrations of a various animals Teacher Guided Questions: How do we adjust to changes in the weather? How do we adjust to environmental changes? How do animals adjust to changes in the weather? How do animals adjust to environmental changes? Lesson: Define and review the term adaptation. Continue by asking students the Teacher Guided Questions using pictures of weather conditions and environments to illustrate changing conditions and how we adapt for each one. Present pictures of animals; have students discuss the way each animal adapts to its environment and habitat. Divide students into groups, assigning each group an animal to discuss its adaptations and habitat. Sunshine State Standards: Grades: Pre-K - 2nd Science F: Processes of life SC.F.1.1.1 Content Standard: Knows the basic needs of all living things. SC.F.1.1.4 Content Standard: Understands that structures of living things are adapted their function in specific environments. SC.F.2.1.2 Content Standard Knows that there are many different kinds of living things that live in a variety of environments Science G: How things interact with their environment SC.G.1.1.1 Content Standard Knows that environments have living and nonliving parts. SC.G.1.1.2 Content Standard Knows that plants and animals are dependent up one another for survival. SC.G.1.1.3 Content Standard Knows that there are many different plants and animals living in many different kinds of environments (e.g. hot, cold, wet, dry, sunny, and dark). SC.G.2.1.1 Content Standard Know that if living things do not get food, water, shelter, and space they will die. SC.G.2.1.2 Content Standard Knows that the activities of humans affect plants and animals in many ways. Grades: 3rd - 5th Science D Processes that shape the earth SC.D.2.2.1 Content Standard Knows that reusing, recycling, and reducing the use of natural resources improve and protect the quality of life. Science F: Processes of life SC.F.1.2.2 Content Standard Knows how all animals depend on plants. SC.F.1.2.3 Content Standard Knows that living things are different but share similar structures. Science G: How living things interact with their environment SC.G.1.2.5 Content Standard Knows that animals eat plants or other animals to acquire the energy they need to survive. SC.G.1.2.7 Content Standard Knows that variations in light, water, temperature, and soil content are largely responsible for the existence of different kinds of organisms and population densities in an ecosystem. SC.G.2.2.1 Content Standard Knows that all living things must compete for Earth's limited resources; organisms best adapted to compete for the available resources will be successful and pass their adaptations (traits) to their offspring. SC.G.2.2.3 Content Standard Understands that changes in the habitat of an organism may be beneficial or harmful. Grades: 6th - 8th Science F: Processes of life SC.F.1.3.7 Content Standard Students understand animal behavior is a response to the environment and influences growth, development, maintenance, and reproduction. SC.F.2.3.3 Content Standard Generally, organisms in a population live long enough to reproduce because they have survival characteristics. Science G: How living things interact with their environment SC.G.1.3.2 Content Standard Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance reproductive success in a particular environment. SC.G.2.3.4 Content Standard Humans are part of an ecosystem and their activities may deliberately or inadvertently alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Grades: 9th - 12th Science F: Processes of life SC.F.1.4.2 Content Standard Knows that body structures are uniquely designed and adapted for their Function. Science G: How living things interact with the environment SC.G.1.4.1 Content Standard Knows the great diversity and interdependence of all things SC.G.2.4.6 Content Standard Knows the ways that humans are placing their environmental support systems at risk (e.g. rapid human population growth, environmental degradation, and resource depletion)