This week, we continued our discussion about how animals survive the winter with a look into hibernation. After watching a video about the wood frog and how it creates its own antifreeze, glycerol, to allow it to completely shut down for the winter, we saw first hand how sugar water reacts differently to cold temperatures than pure water. The students brought home a lab set up where they can observe these changes over the course of several hours. We also jumped back to our classification unit and worked with a snowflake cladogram. I think they all agreed that classifying things can be tricky and there is a lot of room for interpretation--same issues that come up with scientists all the time! This activity had a second part which was sent home with the students where they can create their own snowflake dichotomous key and test it out on their family and friends. If any of them try it out, make sure they let me know how it went! Our final activity for our short winter unit was another look into how animals are equipped to survive the colder, winter temperatures. We did a group demonstration to see how the water temperature affects the rate of respiration (which indicates change in metabolism) of a goldfish. Our group saw a significant difference just by lowering the water temperature by a few degrees. We talked about why this would be advantageous to fish who live in harsh winter climates (decreased need for food which is hard to find in the winter). The students were worried that our fish, Pierogi, would be harmed, but we were careful and he came out as active as ever. Books Extreme Animals Videos Frogscicles: Frozen But Still Alive --This is the frog video we watched in class. Fish Respiration Lab --This will explain in more detail what we demonstrated in class. We did not do this as a full lab, but just a short demonstration.
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Today, we embraced the cooler weather and explored some of the adaptations of animals who live in cold winter climates. We talked about the challenges winter causes and the survival mechanisms of hibernation, adaptation, and migration. Then, it was on to our labs. We had three stations to look at different adaptations. I'm including links in the descriptions where I can because we had such a small group today, so anyone who missed class can follow along at home if they would like. At Station 1, the students were able to feel just how much having a layer of blubber can help an animal that lives in the cold polar seas, such as polar bears. Station 2 was all about the difference between behavioral and structural adaptations. After sorting through various animals' adaptations, they had to think about what types of adaptations humans have developed, if any, to help us survive winter. At Station 3, they played the part of a predator and timed how quickly they could find butterflies that were camouflaged, or not, on a background. It was clear that a butterfly that might blend in one environment would be easy prey in the white snow. (Similar to some of the suggestions here.) Articles:
The Nature Education Knowledge Project: Animal Migration --Discusses which animals migrate, how they navigate and how scientists study migration. Has a recommended reading list and additional links to other articles on migration. Videos: Winter Adaptations from Cornell University's Naturalist Outreach How Ants Survive Winter Migrations: Big Animal Trips BBC's Frozen Planet series (available on Netflix) Wildest: Arctic series (available on Amazon Prime Video) Activities: BrainPOP: Hibernation Animals in the Winter: Feed and watch winter birds. Create a bird feeder from a pinecone or milk carton. Learn what insects and spiders do to survive winter. Instructions in the link. |
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May 2020
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