Classroom Activities
Lesson 1: Begin the unit with literature. A carefully selected book will help engage students and promote discussion. Two books that I recommend are From Wolf to Woof by Hudson Talbott or Dogs: A Kid’s Book of Dog Breeds by Eve Heidi Bine-Stock. I selected these choices because they are age appropriate for third graders and they also address the history of dog domestication, but in different ways. From Wolf to Woof reads much like a modern-day myth and tells a fictional story based on science-based speculation of how wolves may have adapted to living near and with early humans. Dogs: A Kid’s Book of Dog Breeds is a non-fiction book and dedicates a few pages to a particular dog breed. Included with each passage is a description of that breed’s breeding history.
Lesson 2: Continue the unit with a media presentation. There are many age appropriate documentaries about dogs that include the story of their evolutionary divergence from wolves. “A Brief History of Dogs” by Carrot Explains (YouTube channel) is excellent. It is only three minutes long, but is packed with information and even includes the Russian fox researchers mentioned above. Another documentary, called “Dogs!” by Modern Marvels (also on YouTube) clocks in at 45 minutes, but the first 12 minutes are a great introduction to the ancestral link between wolves and dogs. The rest of the documentary focuses on different types of work and services dogs provide to humans. I recommend showing all “A Brief History of Dogs” and the first 12 minutes of “Dogs!” Follow these clips with classroom discussion. Let students develop questions and put them up on chart paper. These questions can serve as talking points later in the unit.
Lesson 3: Online simulations. A computer simulation will help learning about selective breeding in a way that feels like playing a game. A quick google search for “selective breeding simulation” at the time of writing this unit in 2018 brought up many options. I previewed must of them, and the absolute best was by Legends of Learning at https://www.legendsoflearning.com/learning-objectives/artificial-selection-via-selective-breeding/. The game is called Dog Breeding Center and is an excellent way to learn about how dogs are bred for selected traits. You do need to sign up for an account, but the games are free and students can access the game by going to the site and using a class code. You can track their progress in the game once students have logged in. In my opinion, the small investment in time setting up your teacher account was worth it for the value of the activity.
A second choice does not have much to do with dogs, but has everything to do with selective breeding. It uses angelfish and the goal of the game is to increase the value of your aquarium by breeding different types of angelfish with valuable traits. You can find it here: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/biology/angel-breed#
Lesson 4: Class Simulation. For the final activity of this unit, students will participate in a selective dog breeding simulation game designed by Jennifer Johnson Collins and hosted on the University of California Museum of Paleontology website http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/lessons/breeding_dogs/. The game challenges students to breed dogs to match certain traits using parent dog cards and a flip of the coin to see if puppies inherit a trait or not. The activity instructions, teacher prompting, downloadable pdfs, and follow up activities are all included.
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