Asking Questions in Biology: Discovery versus Knowledge

Classroom Activities

These classroom activities help students to be introduced to a focal animal, then look closely at the animal's adaptations, and then form a hypothesis about why their animal has that adaptation.

Activity One: Expository Writing

The second unit in our Language Arts series (Open Court Reading) is titled Animals, and consists of a six -week unit with fiction, poetry, and non -fiction about animals. This will provide a great introduction to our unit about animals and adaptations. The first activity has the goal of showing students the range of biodiversity contained in the kingdom of animals. They will each complete at least on booklet about an animal, so we will have between twenty and forty booklets about a variety of animal families. This will be their first research and expository writing activity. This activity will begin with students generating an extensive list of animal names. Prompts such as "Can you think of an animal with wings? With a tail? With fins? With no legs?" will help students to brainstorm. We will draw upon the students' experiences in the garden with insects, snails, and slugs. Students can be invited up to write the name phonetically on the list. This activity can be done for a ten -minute period on several days cumulatively. When we have a long list of many animals, I will introduce the concept that we can sort these animals into different groups, and introduce the word class, explaining that animals that share certain traits make a class, just like our learning community is called a class. Use large pieces of construction paper to make six posters labeled: Mammalia (Mammals), Reptilia (Reptiles), Aves (Birds), Amphibia (Amphibians), Ichthyetes (Fish) and Invertebrates. Leave a blank space (about 12 inches) under the title for adaptations. These will be added to the poster during the second activity. Students will choose an animal from the long list that interests and excites them by writing their name next it on the list, hopefully a few from each order/genus. Transfer these species' names onto the appropriate class poster. You will have the names of twenty species on the class posters. These will be posted in the writing area. We will then go to the school library and check out trade books on their focal animal.

Students are emergent writers at this point in the first grade year, and will need the support of a cloze (frame) sentence to write their first piece of expository writing. I will post the following sentence strips in a pocket chart at eye level in the writing center, and help students write these sentences into six-page booklets. I use a simple two-page, two-sided template, which has a cover and pages one through six with four lines of first –grade writing space on each page (room for an illustration on top).

• Title: All about _______ by _________
• Page 1: Do you know about ___?
• Page 2: ___can ___(swim, jump, run).
• Page 3: ___ live in ___(continent).
• Page 4: ___ eat ___(other animals, plants).
• Page 5: ___do/do not take care of their babies.
• Page 6: An interesting fact about ___ is ___.

The writing will be introduced during small group work time, when I work with a different group of four students daily. Students will conference with me during small group time to focus on the writing process and help with print conventions and content, so each child can successfully finish a report. Most students will need help with finding 'one interesting fact' about the focus animal for page 6. Students will continue working on their writing independently during writing time. This is a separate block of time when the whole class is writing silently. During this time, I call students up for a quick check (about two minutes), one at a time, to keep them on task. Here is the way I teach them to complete their books: 1) Write sentence one on page one, sentence two on page two, etc. 2) Draw pictures with a pencil. 3) Color in your illustrations. 4) Decorate the cover and add a photo from the animal photo file. During this writing process, some students who are fluent writers will complete a book and go on to begin a second book in the same time it takes reluctant writers to write the text of their booklet. I will provide photos of pictures that the students select for the reports from donated nature magazines, National Geographic, and animal files that I have been collecting for the past few months to use on the cover or on other pages.

Students will be motivated to complete their booklets in order to report out to the class, reading his/her report aloud, and sharing it with parents at home as part of homework. Students will also present his/her report to other students as part of Buddy Reading (reading to an older student), and to other first grade classes. Finally, the books will be housed in our classroom library for students to read during free choice time. This section of the unit will take four weeks from introduction to final booklets being published and illustrated.

Activity Two: Exploring Animal Traits

It is important for students to understand that animals can be described by looking at their physical structures and adaptations. The second activity will teach students to identify adaptations as a trait that helps an animal to survive in its environment. We will go on a field trip to the Oakland Zoo to observe many different animals, and observe animal adaptations.

Parents will be enlisted to ask the students what adaptations they would like photographed, and we will use these photos in class to accompany pieces of writing.

Students will be introduced to this concept by filling in a "web" listing the adaptations of their focal animal. This is a graphic organizer with an oval in the center where the animal name is, surrounded by lines coming out from the oval (like legs from a spider) where the student records traits that the animal has. I will model this in class, before the trip, and we will practice by filling out several each day in the week leading up to the zoo trip. At the zoo, each student will have a clipboard and a packet of 10 blank webs to fill out. He/she will choose an animal, list it's name in the center of the web, and record four structural details of the animal. Space will be provided at the side for an illustration of the animal and notes.

Example:

Back at school, this worksheet will assist the student in forming sentences about adaptations. Example: "A tiger has stripes. A tiger has webbed feet. A tiger has a long tail. A tiger has sharp teeth." These will be stapled together into books for each Class (Mammals, Birds, Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles). I will also introduce the game "Guess my animal". A student will choose a web worksheet, holding it so that the class cannot see. He/she will give clues such as "This animal has no legs. This animal has fins. This animal is a large predator. This animal keeps growing teeth its whole life." Class members can guess and, if correct, the player will turn over the web to reveal the answer. Students will also write riddles based on questions using the word "who". Example "Who has a long neck? Who has spots? Who is an herbivore? Who lives in Africa? A giraffe, that's who! ".

I will begin introducing animal guests to our classroom, some from our Science lab, colleagues' classrooms, and others from the student's homes. This will provide an opportunity for observation and communication. Students will be enlisted to make identification signs for the guests, including specie, binomial nomenclature, habitat and diet.

Building on the concept that animals have traits and adaptations, the students will be introduced to how and why people study animals. Write the words biologist (from the Latin bio, or life), naturalist (from the word nature), and zoologist on the board and ask the students to guess what these words mean. Underline bio (from the Latin bio, or life), natura (from the word nature), and zoo to help them see the roots of these words. Explain that many people have studied animals and plants, and they are called biologists. People who study animals are zoologists, and point out that the students are all becoming zoologists. Tell the students that we will learn about two of these biologists, Carl Von Linne, or Linnaeus, and Charles Darwin. Highlight that both of these biologists lived over 200 years ago, and we have learned a lot more about animals since then, as ideas change because we make new discoveries. As you read about Linnaeus' work on classification, add these traits to the six different animal family posters.

Mammalia (Mammals)

• have hair (whales and other cetaceans only have hair during their early development)
• feed their babies milk
• have a jawbone
• are endothermic (their body temperature can be regulated)

Reptilia (Reptiles)

• have scales on their skin
• some have 4 legs and claws
• some have no legs (snakes)
• are ectothermic (unable to regulate their body temperature)
• lay eggs, but a few give birth to live young

Aves (Birds)

• lay eggs
• are endothermic (their body temperature can be regulated)
• have feathers
• most birds can fly (ostrich, emu, penguin can not)

Amphibia (Amphibians)

• have moist, scaleless skin (they need to stay wet or they will die)
• can 'go to sleep" in hot weather (estivation) or in cold weather (hibernation)
• are ectothermic (unable to regulate their body temperature)
• lay eggs that hatch into a larval stage
• do not have claws

Ichthyetes (Fish)

• are mostly ectothermic
• have gills slits which they use to breathe by drawing oxygen out of the water
• are covered with scales
• have fins

Invertebrates

• have no backbone
• lay eggs
• some have a soft body covering
• some have an exoskeleton
• there are many kinds of invertebrates

At this point you will need several books to introduce the students to the work of Carl Von Linne, or Linnnaeus, and Charles Darwin. These are listed in the resources section. After reading about the work of Carl Linnaeus, discuss why biologists need to know how to classify animals and plants, review the idea that different animal families share similar traits and structures. Here is a game that will reinforce the concept of classification: prepare a few photos of animals from all six families and have double sided tape available. Students will be divided into teams and given a photo of one animal. They need to decide where it belongs (five minutes) and then come back to the rug area to share out. Each group can post the picture on the poster where it belongs and explain why. Each student should be encouraged to read one of the traits and form a sentence about the animal (Example: "This is a fish because it has scales and it swims."). This activity can be played as a short transition between activities (fifteen minutes) or repeated through several times. The teacher should celebrate questions and assist students who are not sure where to place animal photos.

The concepts of Charles Darwin can be simplified for young children by explaining that in nature, animals have to face different challenges. To explain the survival of the fittest, we will look at how climate and food supply affects a group of animals. How do animals survive through a drought or a harsh storm? Sometimes it is through behaviors of a flock or a group of animals. Sometimes it is the fastest and strongest animals that survive. Nature videos will be helpful to illustrate the struggle that species have to endure harsh weather challenges and predator/prey issues. Students will understand that the animals that survive challenges are the most likely to reproduce. Students also need to recognize the need to help animals survive in the wild, because people are moving into their habitats, and changing their habitat.

Activity Three: Forming a Hypothesis

By now, the students have gained knowledge about how animals differ from each other, and how animal adaptations help animals survive in their environment. The last activity will focus on the connection between morphology and environment. As we read about, view video of, or view photos of animals, I will model asking the following questions:

• Where does this animal live?
• What is its habitat?
• What structures do you notice that help this animal live in its habitat?
• What does this animal need to live?
• What does it like to eat?
• How do its structures help it to get food?
• Is it a predator or prey?
• Is it nocturnal and diurnal?
• What is the animal's place in the food chain?

Students will then be encouraged to ask questions about animal's adaptations and structures, based on observations and research. This is a difficult task for young children – they will often make a statement when asked to form a question, so the use of many examples, and practice will be necessary. Post a bulletin board with the heading "That's a good question!" Students will be given index cards to record questions. We will then pair up for a pair/share. Students will exchange questions with a classmate, and have 5 minutes to discuss the questions (then they switch roles). The use of pair/share helps the student to practice the sentence aloud, and will make the task of writing easier. Students will then go their seats to answer the question with a hypothesis, finishing the sentence "I think that ___ have ___ so that they can ________." This frame sentence will be posted at eye level. This activity can be done a few days in a row for a short amount of time, or extended to a thirty -minute period.

Following this activity, we will practice forming hypotheses with one more writing activity. We will use photos taken on the zoo trip to illustrate the following form: "At the zoo, I saw a ____. It is a kind of (mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, fish). It has _____ that help them to __________." These can be mounted with photos and displayed on our writer's wall.

Through completing this unit, students will gain a love of learning about animals, critical thinking skills, and the courage to form new ideas by observing and communicating with their peers.