Curated OER
Animal Adaptations
Animal adaptations, such as camouflage, are high-interest topics that are easily integrated into both reading and math curriculum.
Curated OER
Games on Echolocation
Get a little batty with life science! This fun simulation game replicates how bats use echolocation to hunt moths in their native Hawaiian habitat. After creating blind folds and discussing some basic principles of echolocation, students...
Concord Consortium
Gestation and Longevity
Is the gestation length of an animal a predictor of the average life expectancy of that animal? Learners analyze similar data for more than 50 different animals. They choose a data display and draw conclusions from their graphs.
Curated OER
Blubber Gloves
The ways that animals adapt to their environments is quite remarkable. For this life science lesson, fifth graders take a look at some of the ways that aquatic animals that live in Arctic or Antarctic waters survive. They perform an...
Curated OER
World of the Pond
Field trip! The class will review what they know about organisms that dwell in freshwater ponds, then trek down to the old water hole to collect specimens for examination. This includes several web links, useful tips, and an excellent...
Curated OER
What Does it Take to be a Survivor? Part One
Young scholars explore marine animal adaptation. In this introductory ocean life biology lesson, students access prior knowledge by participating in a whole class "thought swap." Young scholars form two lines, respond to a prompt from...
Curated OER
Prairie Scales and Prairie Smoothies
Sixth graders explore the animals that live on the prairie and identify differences between amphibians and reptiles and the adaptations each have made to live on the prairie.
Illustrative Mathematics
Animal Populations
Assume all you know is that the variable Q represents a value that is bigger than the value represented by the variable P. Which is larger P + Q or 2P? The problems in this activity get more complex than...
Curated OER
Get Ready, Get Set, Hibernate
Students match each body part or idea from a work bank about methods of animal adaptations for winter survival. They observe as the first one, food is covered with the whole class before completing the rest of the diagram. They discuss...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Ratio
What is the ratio of wins to total games for Mia's soccer team? RJ teaches viewers how to figure it out with a step-by-step procedure. He shows them three different ways to represent ratios: word form, ratio form, and fraction form.
Scholastic
Study Jams! Bar Graphs
Mia teaches Sam how to create a bar graph, including forming a title, creating and labeling the axes, choosing a scale, and entering data. After viewing, data analysts can test themselves with seven follow-up questions and review...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: The NIEHS
Should the work of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences be funded by the government? Middle schoolers weigh in on the status of federal funding for programs that protect the environment with three text passages...
National Science Teachers Association
Hop into Action
Young scientists find out what makes amphibians such unique and interesting animals in this simple life science lesson. After looking at pictures and discussing the characteristics of amphibians, learners complete a series...
K5 Learning
Will the Wolf
How well can a wolf survive without a pack? Third graders read about headstrong Will and his desire to be an independent wolf with a short story and series of comprehension questions.
Prince William Network
Migration Math Madness
A great way to incorporate math into life science, this instructional activity has learners measure migratory routes on a map and calculate the actual distance that shorebirds on the routes would cover. Learners compute the distance...
Curated OER
Gotcha Covered, Pardner!
Young geometers use the interactive website Cyberchase to practice calculating both area and perimeter. Real world problems encourage learners to discover that we use math each and every day.
Curated OER
Change or Adaptation
Students identify the adaptive forces in the life cycle of plants, animals, and humans, isolate and identify the role that change and adaptation play in extreme environments and research and write a short term paper using MLA citations.
Curated OER
Track Traces
Students explore animal characteristics by participating in an animal anatomy activity. In this animal tracks lesson, students identify the differences between specific animals and the shape of their footprints. Students utilize a...
Alabama Learning Exchange
I Will Survive
Young scholars explore animal adaptations. In this animal science lesson, students watch the video "Kratt's Kreatures" and work in groups to complete a worksheet about animal adaptations.
Agriculture in the Classroom
Roll of the Genes
Animal reproduction in sheep and cattle is explored with the help of Punnet squares. Scholars employ tools using probability to conclude the color of wool a sheep's offspring will have. Acting as animal geneticists, pupils then take...
Curated OER
Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
Prince William Network
The Incredible Journey
Divide your school gym into breeding grounds and non-breeding grounds so that your zoologists can play a game simulating the seasonal migration of shorebirds. Players pick one of the included game cards and follow its directions, which...
California Academy of Science
Snakes and Lizards Length and Movement
Snakes and lizards can be very tiny or very long. Your class will get out their rulers to see just how big snakes and lizards can be. They discuss several different reptiles by reading the included animal fact cards, then each small...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Opinion: Buddies that Bark or Purr-fect Pets?
Which animal is best for you—a dog or cat? Why? Engage third graders in an opinion writing assessment that prompts them to read facts about both pets, and then write and decide which pet is best for them.