Animal Sciences
Learning Module
- Creator(s):
Upon completion of this learning module, your 3rd-grade students will be able to:
K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
3-LS1-1. Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
A complete list of the Next Generation Science Standards can be found here.
Animal sciences can be as complex as genetics or as simple as the differences between a cat and a dog.
The term animals can range from:
In this module, you will learn about how we group animals, where animals live, what animals eat, how animals grow, and special traits of animals. You may even find that you want to work with animals when you grow up!
Now, take the pre-learning knowledge survey.
Comment on this Update: Take one of your questions from the survey and post it as a comment below. Look through other students' questions and share your insight on at least 2 other questions, either what you think you already know about that student's question or what you hope to learn about that student's question as well. Include the @ symbol when referring to another student's question.
This module is written with the assumption that your students have some familiarity with the Scholar site. If this is the first time your students are using Scholar, you may want to include an update before this one with a video or written tutorial covering the basic navigations of Scholar.
Distribute the survey to analyze where students' knowledge on the topic of animal sciences already is. The survey is meant to be formatted similar to a KWL chart, except that students will apply their "L" or "What I Learned" knowledge at the end of the module through the final project. See what "W" or "What I Want to Know" questions students have as they begin the module.
You can find more information here about the purpose of a KWL chart.
Here are some your responses from last week's survey:
| What I think I know | What I want to know |
Now it's time to answer some of your questions and learn about animals!
Animals are all around us. They may be in our homes willingly or unwillingly, as a cat or dog or fish or as an unwelcome pest like a mouse or ant. They are in our backyard, the neighborhood pond, and the forest preserves down the street. You will even find animals if you live in a busy city.
Think of your favorite animal. Your animal belongs to a specific group. It may be an insect or a mammal or a fish. Don't worry if you don't know what these are yet, you'll learn soon! Your animal eats specific foods and you probably won't be able to find your animal everywhere, it lives in a specific part of the world or in a specific kind of weather. Your animal might be eaten by other animals or eats other animals, or it might only eat plants.These are just a few of the concepts we will learn about in more depth in the coming weeks.
Post your update: In the next few weeks, visit a zoo, wildlife center, park, or anywhere else outside and jot down any animals you see for 30 minutes. You do not have to know their exact names, just the general term is okay. Write what you see the animals doing, eating, etc. Post an update with your findings. Then, view 2 classmates' observations logs and comment on any similarities or differences between yours and theirs. Think: Did the place you chose to take observations at affect what you saw? What is unique to the area you live in compared to the other person's location? Will you find different animals in different areas of the world?
Comment: Comment below with how animals are beneficial and harmful in your life. Do you live on a farm? Do you eat animal products? Look for clothes and products around your home and see if any of them are made from animals such as beeswax or wool.
Prior to distributing this week's material, make sure to fill in the table with students' responses from the survey and the KW chart.
Provide students with this resource to a virtual zoo if you are aware that some students may not have access or opportunity to spend a significant time outdoors or go to a zoo or wildlife center. http://www.waza.org/en/zoo/
This module is meant to introduce students to the big topics that we will be covering in the coming weeks. Students will spend about one week on each topic.
I hope you saw some interesting animals that you may have never known you could find so close to you in your observation's last week!
Now you'll learn how to group some of the animals that you saw or will see. There are 6 "types" of animals. We call a group of one kind of animal a "species". Some animals have hair or feathers and some have no hair at all. Some have babies are born "live" and some animals' babies grow in an egg first.
And don't forget arthropods! This animal classification includes over 85 percent of all animals in the world. This is where animals like spiders, ants, bees, crabs, scorpions, butterflies, and shrimp would be grouped into.
Some characteristics of arthropods include:
Some animals are cold-blooded—meaning they take on the temperature of the place they are in—and some are warm-blooded—they will try to keep their body at the same temperature by using the food they eat to warm up or cool down.
Go back to your observations from last week and see if you can figure out which group the animals you saw would fit into. What features about that animal did you write down that might help you to decide which group the animal fits into? Did you see hair or fur? Or feathers and wings?
Now, play this game to test your knowledge on animal classifications!
There are additional resources on mammal memory game and bird memory game if you need more examples of these types of animals.
Update for this week: Go back to 2 different students' updates than the ones you commented on last week. Look at your classmate's observations and see if you can determine what groups the animals they saw would be classified into.
Comment: What is one classification of animals that you learned about? Do you know an animal that would fit into the category? How do you know? What traits does that animal have or what does it look like?
Differentiation is possible, even in an online learning tool!
Scholastic, Inc. defines[1] differentiated instruction as teachers knowing their students well so they can provide each one with experiences and tasks that will improve their learning. Some of your students may benefit from more review or engagement with classifying animals, and this can be done through the games at the bottom of the student section
One game will ask students to drag and drop characteristics into "animal jars". A memory game is also included for those students who learn and understand the material better through a familiar game like matching two cards. We are giving students multiple options for taking in information, through the games, graphics, and text in the update.
There are many different places you will find animals. But you may only find certain animals in certain places. You won't find a whale in a rainforest without any water or a lion in an ocean.
Habitat is a fancy word for where an animal lives.
Here are just a few types of habitats that you will find animals.
Desert
Deserts are the world's driest habitat. Some are hot, and some can actually get very cold. Some deserts do not get any rain at all for many years, which will make them unsustainable for life. But other deserts like those found in Mexico and the southwest United States are not as dry and can support more life. The rainwater is soaked up by plants, which can be eaten by some animals, and these animals are eaten by larger animals.
Ocean
More than 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans. Scientists estimate that about one million types of animals live in the ocean. Some of the smallest animals only viewable with a microscope and the largest mammal, the blue whale, can all be found in this one habitat. The sea is a small area of an ocean, usually with land on several sides.
Coral reefs are a habitat within the ocean habitat.
Estuaries are places where rivers and oceans meet and have a mix of saltwater and freshwater.
River
Polar/Arctic/Tundra
Polar habitats are located at the very top and very bottom parts of the Earth. They are the coldest of all habitats. There is very little rainfall and there are only two seasons, long winters and short summers, though summer temperatures may not reach above 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius. Some grasses and moss can grow when the top layer of ice thaws in the summer, but since trees cannot take root, most animals live in holes in the ground, underwater, or caves made from snow. Most animals who live in this habitat must eat meat and hunt for fish or smaller animals in order to survive.
Rainforest
There are two types of rainforest habitats are tropical and temperate. Tropical rainforest can be found in hot and wet regions near the Equator, which is an imaginary line around the middle of the Earth. Tropical rainforests are lush and warm all year long. The average temperature in tropical rainforests ranges from 70 to 85°F (21 to 30°C). It can rain hard in tropical rainforests and the yearly rainfall ranges from 80 to 400 inches (200 to 1000 cm). It can downpour as much as 2 inches (5 cm) in an hour in tropical rainforests!
Temperate rainforests, on the other hand, are not as rainy. They are found along coasts in regions with mild temperatures. Temperate rainforests are a lot cooler than tropical rainforests, but the temperatures are still mild. They often have two distinct seasons: one long wet winter, and a short drier summer.
Savanna
The savanna is an open grasslands located in Africa. For half the year, savannahs are hot and dry, and they also have a season of heavy rains. Tall grass grows during the rainy season.
QUIZ
Once you feel you have a grasp on this information, see if you can determine what type of habitat each of these animals would live in, based on a picture of the animal. You should have received a notification that the survey was distributed to you.
GAMES
See if you can classify these animals as you observe them in their habitats!
Note: This one uses the additional categories of Mollusk and Crustacean.
Information on most habitats included in this section: https://www.dkfindout.com/us/animals-and-nature/habitats-and-ecosystems/
You will cover the following habitats in this update:
Desert habitat information: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/desert.html
Ocean habitat information: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/habitats/ocean/#coral-reef-fish.jpg
Polar habitat information: https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/polar-habitats & http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/tundra.html
Rainforest habitat information: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/rainforest.html
Link to all games in this section: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/kidscorner_games.htm
Distribute the survey for students to self-assess their knowledge on what habitat certain animals belong in.
The survey can be used as a summative assessment to determine if your students are grasping the information in this update. It will depend on how much background knowledge your students have with the animals mentioned in the survey. You may choose to instead use the survey as an additional game or practice for your students or run through it during your synchronous lecture and make it a formative assessment as students type in their answer in the chat.
Animals must eat other living organisms in order to survive, which includes both plants and other animals.
There are three main types of diets:
Look at the graphics to see what kinds of animals have each type of diet and what the words mean. You should be able to define the following terms:
Update: Think of an animal that you have not yet covered in any of your previous updates. If you cannot think of one, perhaps think of the animals you saw in the survey last week. Do a quick engine search to see what kinds of foods your animal eats. List out those foods. Then, determine if your animal is a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. Your student-student interaction for this week will be in the comment sections of this update.
Comment: Would you consider yourself an omnivore, herbivore, or carnivore? Why? What are your favorite foods? Respond to at least 2 of your classmates' comments. Include the @ symbol when referring to another student's question. What was something interesting about the kind of diet your classmate said they had?
https://a-z-animals.com/reference/diet/
The diet of animals is usually split into three groups: herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.
Herbivores are animals that are vegetarian, meaning they only eat plants. Elephants, rabbits, and deer are all examples of herbivores.
Carnivores are animals that are meat-eaters, meaning that they only eat other animals in order to get their nutrition. Carnivores usually have sharp teeth and strong jaws, which they need to successfully catch and eat other animals. Lions, crocodiles, and sharks are all examples of carnivores. We may see our dog eat the occasional bit of grass, but our dog's main diet is foods containing meat or meat products.
Omnivores are animals that eat almost anything. Their diet is made up of both plant matter and other animals. Humans, bears, and some birds are all examples of omnivores. Some humans may consider themselves herbivores because they do not eat any animals or meat.
You can introduce students to next week's topic and show the connection between diet and food chains. Carnivores are usually the "top" of the food chain, meaning that a wolf doesn't have to worry about being eaten as much as a mouse does. Mice prefer to eat fruit, seeds, and grains, so a mouse would be in the middle of the food chain, with the food that the mouse eats at the very bottom. Food chains typically start with plants.
Every living thing needs energy in order to live. Every time you do something, like walk or jump or talk, you use energy to do that action.
A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, and how the food and energy is passed from one creature to the next creature.
Food chains begin with PRODUCERS. They are called this because they produce, or make, their own food. Plants use light from the sun, certain things in the air, and water from the ground to make their food.
Animals are called CONSUMERS. They cannot make their own food, so they need to consume, or eat, the PRODUCERS or other animals. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores are the three groups of consumers.
Bacteria and fungi are DECOMPOSERS. They eat decaying matter like dead plants and animals and decompose, or break down, dead plants and animals and release certain food back into the ground for plants to use for food, so the cycle can start all over again!
Here are a few examples of a food chain:
Update: Think of and sketch your own food chain with at least 4 plants/animals. Take a picture and upload it into your own post, briefly explaining what each animal or plant's role in your food chain is. Find 2 other classmates' food chains and comment on anything new or interesting you learned from their food chain.
Use the image below to guide your thinking for your post.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/foodchain/producersconsumers.htm
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/foodchain/foodchain.htm
https://a-z-animals.com/reference/diet/
Animals need food and water to survive. Sometimes, we can see how animals get their food by looking at things we call food chains. These actually show us chains, or the connections, animals have to one another as a food source.
Food chains involve the passing of food from one animal to another. Typically, food chains start with a plant which is known as a PRODUCER. The PRODUCER in a food chain gains the energy it needs from the sun. The PRODUCER is eaten by a herbivore known as a PRIMARY CONSUMER, which is then consumed by a SECONDARY CONSUMER, generally a small, omnivorous animal. The TERTIARY CONSUMER, usually a smaller carnivore, then eats the SECONDARY CONSUMER. The TERTIARY CONSUMER may be eaten by a larger carnivore who would be the QUATERNARY CONSUMER.
Food chains usually will not contain more than 5 or 6 animals because the animals are not getting as much energy as they eat one another and because the sizes of animals become too big in comparison to other animals in its habitat. For example, if we determined that a bear was a QUATERNARY CONSUMER in a food chain, it is hard to think of an animal that is bigger than a bear, therefore, our food chain would end there.
Think about how you grew to the age you are now and how much more you will grow. Before you continue, take a piece of paper and jot down all the "stages" you can think of before your current age and all the "stages" after your current age. You will use these in the comment section for this week, so try to make a genuine effort before you continue!
A "stage" of life refers to one moment in an animal's life.
Perhaps you thought of as many human stages as this:
Or kept it as simple as four stages of human life:
We consider all animals to go through four basic stages of life.
We further classify life cycles into simple or complex life cycles.
Humans have simple life cycles. To determine if an animal has a simple life cycle, see if the young looks similar to the parent. More examples of animals with a simple life cycle include cats (domestic and wild), bears, and birds.
On the other hand, some animals go through metamorphosis, or a big change. These animals do not look like the adult when they are born. Some examples of animals with a complex life cycle include caterpillars and butterflies and tadpoles and frogs.
Play this life cycle game. Think carefully about if it is asking you for the stage before or after.
Comment: Write the list of stages you came up with for a human (even if it was more than four). How many did you come up with? How would you group the ones you came up with into the four basic stages?
Update: Pick another animal you know and list some of the characteristics of that animal as it enters each of the four stages. View 2 other classmates' posts and see what other characteristics you can come up with for the animal they chose.
http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/lifecycle.htm
Here is another good resource of animals that are considered to have simple life cycles or complex life cycles: http://share.nanjing-school.com/library/life-cycles-grade-2/
In the simplest form, we think of animals to have four stages of life:
There are two types of life cycles: simple and complex. In simple life cycles, the young animal looks somewhat similar to its parent. Kittens, puppies, and human babies all kind of look like their mom and dad when they are born, maybe just with their eyes closed or they can't do as many things that mom and dad can do like talk or walk. But if we looked at the young version of the animal, we could probably predict what that young animal will grow up to be.
In a complex life cycle, the young animal looks very different from the adult or parent, where it might not have legs or certain body features. Caterpillars into butterflies and tadpoles into frogs are two examples of animals that look very different in the first stage to the last stage, so they have complex life cycles.
Every animal has special traits, or parts of its body and what it does, that helps it to survive in its habitat.
Adaptations fall into three categories:
Body parts and body coverings are structural adaptions that help an animal to survive. Body parts include webbed feet, sharp teeth, whiskers, wings, or hooves, while body coverings include striped or spotted fur, feathers, and scales.
Behavioral adaptations include migration and whale feeding patterns.
An adaptation occurs from a mutation. A mutation means that a part of the animal changed by accident, usually while it was growing inside its mom. Some mutations are harmful to the animal, and it may not be able to survive because of its mutation. Other mutations can help the animal survive better than other animals without the mutation.
For example, imagine a group of birds. In spring, one bird is born with a beak that is longer than the beak of other birds in the species. The longer beak helps that bird catch more food. Because the bird can catch more food, it is healthier than the other birds, lives longer and breeds more. The bird passes the gene for a longer beak on to its offspring. They also live longer and have more offspring and the gene continues to be inherited generation after generation. Eventually, the longer beak can be found in all of the birds in the species. This doesn't happen overnight. It takes thousands of years for a mutation to be found in an entire species. The characteristics that help a species survive in an environment are passed on to future generations. Those characteristics that don't help the species survive slowly disappear.
https://www.zoosociety.org/pdf/GuidedTours/AnimalAdap.pdf
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep1.htm
All animals have something about them that has helped them to survive all these years on Earth. We call these adaptations. Some adaptations are structural, meaning that they refer to how an animal has a physical feature like a bill or fur that help them to survive. Other adaptations are behavioral, meaning that the animal does certain things that help it to survive, such as whale calls and bird migration.
Adaption is defined as "a body part, body covering, or behavior that helps an animal to survive its environment", according to the research listed above.
We can categorize adaptations into three different kinds.
Body parts - Many animals have developed specific parts of their body to adapt to survive in certain habitats. Some examples are webbed feet, sharp claws, whiskers, large beaks, and hooves.
Body coverings - Body coverings help to protect animals in diverse environments. Mammals have hair, or body to insulate their bodies. It keeps them warm in the winter. Some mammals have different coverings like the armadillo has plates, the porcupine who has quills, or the smooth skin that cover the dolphin. All of these help these mammals to survive in the different conditions in which they live. Some other examples are striped fur, spotted fur, feather, and scales.
Behaviors - Behaviors are the actions of an animal. An animal has learned, perhaps from their parent or other animals in the group, how to act like the animal they were born as so that they can survive. A money wouldn't be taught how to swim a long distance through the ocean, rather it might learn how to swing from tree to tree to move around the rainforest.
Now that you've learned all this about animals, what can you do with this knowledge?
There are so many careers to choose from involving animals.
Veterinarian
Within the field of veterinary medicine, you can decide whether you want to work with small animals like cats, dogs, and hamsters, or large animals like cows and horses, and even wildlife and exotic species in zoos. Your main responsibilites as a veterinarian will be to examine and care for healthy, sick, and injured animals and provide surgical services.
Veterinarian Technician & Technologists
Veterinarian technicians and technologists assist veterinarians with various surgeries and perform a lot of work in the labratory setting. While both hold similar responsibilites, veterinary technologists require a higher level of education. They also adminster medications and vaccinations and run lab tests such as blood work.
Nutrition Consultant
A nutrition consultant will work will feed distributors to provide nutritional advice to animal producers.
Research Assistant
Generally, research assistants will collaborate with a university to assist on large-scale research projects. Research topics can range from dairy crossbreeding to horse cognition.
Dog Groomer
You will wash, dry, and clip nails of dogs. All dogs are either clipped, hand scissored, shaved, or brushed out according to breed stanadrd or client request.
Farm Manager
Farm managers may manage farms housing anything from dairy animals to ducks. A manager's main responsibility will be to supervise employees and handle finances to maintain the farm.
Update: Find one career involving animals not mentioned above from this list or any other credible links you find on the interweb. Write a description of the job, why it interests you, the degree or skill requirements, the responsibilities, and how animals are involved.
In this update, students will learn about careers that involve animals in some aspect. While not all animal-related careers, a variety of jobs have been included as a starting point for you to determine if you need more or less for your group of students. Some of your students may want to work with animals but do more of the behind-the-scenes work like helping to make their food better or overall lifestyle better by doing research. Some may prefer hands-on interactions with animals as a veterinarian or other animal caretaker.
A full but not comprehensive list of animal sciences careers can be found here: http://animalcareers.cornell.edu/list_careersby.php?col=title
While there's certainly lots more to learn about animals, let's take everything we've learned so far and apply it to a fun project.
It's time to create your own animal and/or habitat!
Create your own animal-
As you envision your own animal, think about what kind of habitat it will live in and what group or classification your animal would fall into. What will it eat? Where would it fall in the food chain? What is at least one special trait you forsee mutating that will help future generations of the species to survive better in the habitat (or harm its survival)? Include a hand-drawn picture of your animal and check the rubric to ensure you have included all written components for the assignment.
OR
Create your own habitat-
Think about what types of animals would live in this habitat, both real-life ones or make-believe ones. What traits about these animals help them to survive and thrive in your habitat? How do animals obtain food and water in your habitat? Where can animals find shelter? What kinds of food chains exist in your habitat that will help several different types and sizes of animals to live there? What is a special trait one animal in your habitat may mutate or adapt that will better help it to survive in your habitat? Include a hand-drawn picture of your habitat. You may include computer-generated pictures of some animals if they are real ones or draw your own if you came up with make-believe animals, with brief explanations why your make-believe animals are fit for your habitat. Check the rubric to ensure you have included all written components for the assignment.
If you need some inspiration as you think about your habitat, here are some "create your own" games.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/ocean/animaloceancreate.htm
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/forest/animalforestcreate.htm
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/jungle/animaljunglecreate.htm
Students will be using the Creator section of Scholar to complete this project. There are several written documents with screenshots in the Help section to inform students how to use this portion of the site. If students are still confused, it may be helpful to include your own tutorial of Creator in this update.
Students will submit an initial draft for their peers to review and then have some time to edit their project and submit a final work for your grading. You may set the pace for the due dates to times that you feel your class will need to complete the assignment.
Remind students that the following are the required components in their Creator work:
Students will be required to submit a picture of their animal or habitat as well as a picture of the plants and animals involved in the food chain. If students do not have access to taking a picture of their hand-drawn work, allow students to create their works digitally as long as long as it is an original creation of an animal or habitat.