After learning about and exploring plant and animal adaptations, students research local organisms with interesting adaptations and share findings with their classmates. Students identify adaptations globally by analyzing a documentary.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_Adaptations_LessonOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:
Adaptations Activity 1: Adapting to the Environment
Adaptations Activity 2: Physical Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 3: Behavioral Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 4: Go Adapt!
Adaptations Activity 5: Create a Creature

Students explore the adaptations that allow beavers to thrive in aquatic environments, then make observations and inferences about the functions of diverse bird beaks.

Students discuss the migration of monarch butterflies as an example of behavioral adaptations, then act out the behavioral adaptations of organisms in charades.

Students synthesize their understanding of adaptations by playing a “go fish” style game to collect sets of organisms with physical and behavioral adaptations.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_Adaptations_LessonOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:

Adaptations Activity 1: Adapting to the Environment
Adaptations Activity 2: Physical Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 3: Behavioral Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 4: Go Adapt!
Adaptations Activity 5: Create a Creature

If you could create a new creature, what adaptations would it have and why? In this activity students design a trait card for an organism using behavioral and physical adaptations to help it survive in its environment.

STUDENT ACTIVITY – 4th -- TXThis is a distance-learning lesson students can complete at home.Students will use knowledge of adaptations to compare the structures and functions of plants. These likenesses are passed down between parent plants and their offspring.This activity was created by Out Teach (out-teach.org), a nonprofit providing outdoor experiential learning to transform Science education for students in under-served communities. .

During World War Two, a fierce battle between American and Japanese forces on Kwajalein atoll left a trail of debris on the deep lagoon floor. This lagoon now has one of the largest collections of well-preserved aircraft in the world. In this video, as part of the first ever film crew allowed onto this secret military base, Jonathan explores a B-25, F4-U Corsair and Dauntless dive bomber still sitting on the bottom of the ocean, as if ready to take off. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

This is a project based lesson focused on behavioral and physical adaptations of animals.

This article reprints and links to informational text about the adaptations that allow mammals and fish to survive in polar oceans. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.

In the open ocean around the Bahamas, pods of wild Spotted Dolphins frolic in the sunshine. Sometimes, they get bored and approach boats. In this educational video, Jonathan joins dolphin expert Wayne Scott Smith to learn how dolphins interact with each other. Jonathan learns how to play the Bandana Game, a game of -keep away- that the dolphins invented and like to play with Scott. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

There are almost as many types of bird beaks as there are types of food that birds like to eat. This collection of images shows a wide range of beaks and the types of foods handled by each.

Birds are everywhere. Have you ever stopped to consider what your neighborhood birds need to survive and what their habitat is? Check out the Bird Biologist video to learn how the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is studying white headed woodpeckers. In the Discovery Challenge video, you will go outside and map the sounds you hear. Then, design, build, and set out a bird feeder to explore the habitat needs of your neighborhood birds.

This lesson introduces NGSS standards, and those standards are listed in the lesson and is part of the Explore Science Club series, an online Career Connected Learning program developed by the Greater Oregon STEM Hub. To learn more find us at: www.go-stem.org.

In this video, Jonathan joins Charlie Donilon on his shark charter boat in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and learns about how shark tagging has shed light on the biology of and behavior of Blue sharks. Tagging has shown that these incredible swimmers actually migrate completely across the Atlantic ocean. Jonathan tries his hand at tagging a shark and then swims with Blue sharks. We also learn that Blue sharks are not nearly as vicious as they have been reputed to be, and the divers are actually able to pet the sharks! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this interactive activity from Shedd Aquarium, build a fish and then release it into the reef to search for food and evade predators. Try different combinations and observe how each kind of fish has unique adaptations that help it survive in its habitat.

Students apply their understanding of physical characteristics and biological classification of different organisms through a game of classification "Go Fish!"

Explore a NetLogo model of populations of rabbits, grass, and weeds. First, adjust the model to start with a different rabbit population size. Then adjust model variables, such as how fast the plants or weeds grow, to get more grass than weeds. Change the amount of energy the grass or weeds provide to the rabbits and the food preference. Use line graphs to monitor the effects of changes you make to the model, and determine which settings affect the proportion of grass to weeds when rabbits eat both.

Explore how populations change over time in a NetLogo model of sheep and grass. Experiment with the initial number of sheep, the sheep birthrate, the amount of energy sheep gain from the grass, and the rate at which the grass re-grows. Remove sheep that have a particular trait (better teeth) from the population, then watch what happens to the sheep teeth trait in the population as a whole. Consider conflicting selection pressures to make predictions about other instances of natural selection.

STUDENT ACTIVITY -- 4th -- NCThis is a distance-learning lesson students can complete at home. The student will explore the garden environment for examples of organisms meeting their needs and will be given an event that might cause that organism to thrive, move or perish.This activity was created by Out Teach (out-teach.org), a nonprofit providing outdoor experiential learning to transform Science education for students in under-served communities.

Once the pride of the German Navy, this 700 foot long heavy cruiser was used by the U.S. as a test target for not one but two atom bombs at Bikini atoll. Today, at the bottom of the ocean, the radiation levels of the Prinz Eugen are low enough for safe exploration. In this video, Jonathan joins historian Mark Miller on a trip to explore this mysterious shipwreck. What they find about the condition of this wreck is surprising. Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

The Fab Four Phyla lesson provides an introduction to the main family groups of intertidal animals found in the Alaskan coastal rocky intertidal zone. The objective of the lesson is to help students become familiar with the four most abundant marine invertebrate phyla that can be observed on a field trip experience and the defining characteristics of each. If unable to do a field trip, this lesson will provide the foundation for understanding the key marine invertebrate phyla in a rocky intertidal ecosystem and an understanding of adaptations animals have to survive living in a particular intertidal zone.The lesson includes photos of marine invertebrates for each of the phyla, downloadable information sheets and an Intertidal Field Guide Atlas, a PowerPoint presentation on marine invertebrates and an instructional video about animal adaptations in the intertidal zone.