Channel Islands Film
Dark Water: Lesson Plan 2 - Grade 3
A discussion of bioluminescence launches an investigation of animal adaptations. After re-watching the opening minutes of Dark Water, class members listen to a reading of What Do You Do with a Tail Like This, and then create a new animal...
California Academy of Science
Coincidental Colonization
The Galápagos Islands are an amazing place of isolated adaptation, colonized by an interesting mix of plants and animals. The class plays a game to help them understand how these organisms came to live on the island through a combination...
American Museum of Natural History
Ocean Creature Feature
From coloring to hard protective shells, ocean creatures have adaptation features that help them survive. An eight-question online quiz highlights different ocean animals and their unique characteristics. The resource then offers pop-up...
Curated OER
Ocean Exploration
Students explore whales. In this animal adaptation and whale lesson, students access prior knowledge about whales from previous lessons, then use background knowledge to predict the eating strategies of a baleen whale and a toothed...
NOAA
Ocean Zones
How can organisms light up in water? Bioluminescence is light produced in a chemical reaction that can occur in an organism's body. First, learners determine what happens to light/color as you move into the deep ocean. In groups, they...
University of Southern California
What Lives In The Ocean?
One of the most diverse environments on Earth is the ocean. Young scientists explore the living things found in the ocean during an exciting seven-lesson unit. Their study includes organisms from plankton to invertebrates and vertebrates...
Aquarium of the Pacific
Ocean Drifters
Take a drift in the ocean. Class members watch a video on plankton, the drifters of the ocean. Scholars find out about the different types of plankton and sea jellies. To add a little variety, they use the aquarium webcams to study sea...
Curated OER
Gray Whales
Explore the majestic grey whale while deepening your understanding of animal adaptations. Grey whales from head to toe are specifically designed to fit their environment. Learners will examine the ways in which the flippers, head, body,...
University of Southern California
What Is The Ocean?
Go on a tour of the ocean through the lens of a scientist. Learners read maps of the ocean floor, study tide behavior, examine wave motion, and analyze components of soil. Each lesson incorporates a hands-on component.
American Museum of Natural History
What's This? Life at the Limits
There are some amazing ways species evolve to survive. From large ears to sneezing salt, learners read about these interesting adaptations in an interactive lesson. Great to supplement an in-class lesson, it also works well as a remote...
Curated OER
Camouflage, Protection, & Adaptations—Who am I?
Students explore ocean animal adaptations. In this animal adaptations lesson, students examine how different ocean animals use adaptations other than camouflage to protect themselves.
Curated OER
Adaptations of Penguins
In this adaptations of penguins worksheet, students write short answers describing 14 ways penguins are adapted for their living environment.
American Museum of Natural History
What's This? Staying Safe
Amaze the class with the creative adaptations species employ to trick predators. An online interactive lesson introduces learners to six different species with unique adaptations. Each species highlights a different adaptation and its...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Making of the Fittest: Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies
How did the stickleback fish, which was once ocean bound, evolve to be able to persist in freshwater lakes? Hear from the scientists who identified the genes and related switches that allowed these survivors to adapt. In addition to the...
Curated OER
Inside-out Adaptations
Students describe sea stars adaptations and explain how these enable them to survive in different environments. For this animal adaptation lesson students watch a video, get into groups and create a list of characteristics of sea stars.
Curated OER
Fish Fashion 101
Young scholars explore fish anatomy. In this fish anatomy and adaptation lesson plan, students define and identify the location of fish body parts. Young scholars add these parts of a fish's anatomy to a life-sized fish costume worn by a...
Wildlife Conservation Society
Build Your Wild Self
Get wild with an interactive web site that challenges scholars to create their wildest self. Future wild things begin as an average person—eyes, mouth, clothes—then morph into animal attributes—horns, tails, wings—and end in the desert,...
Curated OER
Habitats and Adaptations
Students research and describe the habitat and adaptations of a reef animal. After the student is assigned a habitat, they design and draw a cresture adapted to eat each food and to live in each habitat.
Curated OER
Whale Adaptations
Young scholars explore whales and how they have adapted to survive in the ocean. In this whale adaptations instructional activity students complete several activities that allow them to investigate animal adaptations.
Lerner Publishing
Teaching Habitats
What makes up a habitat? Use this resource to engage first graders in the exploration of desert, wetland, forest, and ocean habitats. Youngsters classify plants and animals into the four distinct habitats through drawings and cutting and...
Curated OER
Wildlife
First, biology pupils research land and marine habitats along the route of skipper Rich Wilson's Great American II. Then, using colored paper clips scattered across a colored paper background, they play the predator-prey game to...
Curated OER
Glacier Bay Pacific Halibut
The National Park Service has produced a high-quality presentation on the halibut population of Glacier Bay, Alaska. It takes the viewpoint of the marine biologists or rather, ichthyologists, who have been studying the adaptations,...
Curated OER
Fish Eyes - More than Meets the Eye
Inform your class about the adaptations in fish eyes: cones, lens size, endothermy, and speed of vision. The adaptations are related to diving behavior. Junior marine scientists compare the adaptations of four different fish species to...
Curated OER
Sunken Millions Animals
This PowerPoint includes a game with ocean graphics in which two teams answer increasingly difficult questions about animals. Topics covered include plant and animal cells, animal adaptation, and similarities and differences between...