This half-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 (listed below). These activities are designed to enhance each student's knowledge of the topic to be covered.
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?
Lesson Preparation: Pictures of various animals with different mouth types: white rhinoceros, parrot, alligator, snake, fish, giraffe.
Teachers 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.
Pictures of various environments such as swamplands, mountains, beaches.
Pictures or illustrations of a various animals
Teachers 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.
