Avery Finch Science Lesson On Beaks and Animal Adaptations Core Decisions What?

The content at the focus of this lesson is bird beaks as adaptations for survival. Students will be introduced to the concept that animals have certain body parts (this lesson will focus exclusively on structural, as opposed to behavioral, adaptations) that fit particular functionsfor example, that a pelicans bill is ideal for catching fish in the waterand that those functions are necessary to survive. (LS1.A; Crosscutting Concept 6) Students will also gain experience in key areas of scientific practice. Students will make careful observations, then make inferences and predictions by drawing upon both their observations and their prior knowledge. After testing their predictions, they will compile and graph their data. They will then discuss and attempt to analyze the findings of the group. (See Common Core State Standards, below.) How? The content and the procedures are directly intertwined in this lesson, so students will be learning content as they engage in several scientific practices. Students will begin by observing photos of several different birds and reflecting on what makes them similar and different. They will then focus more specifically on the differences between the birds beaks, and be asked to draw upon their prior knowledge to make inferences about why the beaks are different. I will explain (or confirm) that birds beaks are different to suit their different eating habits, and I will introduce the term adaptation as it refers to animals: a body part or behavior that helps an animal survive in its environment. Students will briefly discuss other examples of animal adaptation with which they may be familiar in order to generalize the concept. Students will then work with models for different bird beaks in order to determine the effectiveness of certain tools for acquiring different foods (preceded by predictions based on their observations). After they test the tools they will graph and then compare their findings, working together to first interpret their results in the context of the activity itself and then talking about the results implications in terms of real birds. This lesson is adapted from an activity in Birds, Birds, Birds! (National Wildlife Federation, 1992), a part of the Ranger Ricks NatureScope series. See the Why? section, below, for details about how the lesson was adapted. Why? My decision to teach a lesson on animal adaptations was based in large part on the students expressed interest in animal life. A recent trip to the zoo confirmed that they would be captivated by discussion of animals. I also know that the students relish any opportunity to do what they belief real scientists dothat is, perform experiments. As

such, I decided to adapt a lesson, suggested by NancyLee Bergey, that allows the students to explore a topic that interests them through hands-on experimentation. Also crucial in my planning were the science standards that students are expected to meet. In addition to introducing students to important life sciences concepts, it also provides them with valuable practice in several key areas of scientific practice. Most notable, in my opinion, are asking questions, using models, analyzing and interpreting data, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. The students will also have opportunity to notice and, most importantly, discuss some of the important patterns in the animal worlda concept that is relevant across all areas of science. (See Common Core State Standards, below.) The lesson in which students test different models for bird beaks is adapted from an activity in Birds, Birds, Birds! (National Wildlife Federation, 1992), a part of the Ranger Ricks NatureScope series. I made several modifications for this class. First of all, because I will be working with a smaller group and in a shorter time frame than is typical, I limited the number of tools to three, and assigned each pair a single tool that they would test at each of three stations. This will limit the variables and the time spent on preparation and experimentation. Additionally, I wanted to build in a concrete method of analyzing the data, because that is arguably the most important part of the lesson: executing an experiment in a scientific way and then making sense of what we found. As such I added the graphing component to the end, which I feel will help illustrate the practicality of a bar graph for looking at a collection of data.

Comment: fave: I initially intended to replace the rice that the original lesson calls for with dried beans, because I thought that working with grains of rice might prove frustrating for the young children. However after testing the tweezers (which are supposed to be the "best" tool for the rice) with the beans, I realized that this was not a viable option-so rice it is.

Lesson Plan Date/Time to be Implemented: Wednesday 11/27 at 11:45 am Students: Second Grade at Penn Alexander Anticipated Time: 45-50 minutes Goals and Objectives Students will be able to: ! make close observations of a tool in order to make predictions about the effectiveness of that tool to do particular tasks. ! test their predictions in an experiment involving models. ! collect, chart, and interpret their data. ! explain why it is beneficial and necessary for birds to have different types of beaks in order to demonstrate a developing understanding of animal adaptations. Common Core State Standards Disciplinary Core Idea: Life Sciences (National Research Council, 2012) ! LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes addresses how individual organisms are configured and how these structures function to support life, growth, behavior, and reproduction. " LS1.A: Structure and Function: How do the structures of organisms enable lifes functions? # Grade Band Endpoints for LS1.A (Grade 2): All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Science and Engineering Practices ! Asking Questions ! Using Models ! Carrying Out Investigations ! Analyzing and Interpreting Data ! Constructing Explanations ! Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information Crosscutting Concepts ! Patterns: Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them. ! Structure and Function: The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions. Materials and Preparation ! color print-outs of 3 birds ! tape (to hang pictures) ! 1 clock with hands and/or cell phone with timer

Comment: fave: In the interest of time, I limited this to the three birds we would be discussing during the lesson.

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1 large slotted spoon 1 pair of tweezers 1 pair of tongs 3 aluminum pie trays (or other shallow containers) 2 Styrofoam cups, ripped into small pieces 1 bag of dried beans 1 bag of marshmallows 6 paper cups 6 pencils 4 Data Collection sheets (one for teacher) 7 Predictions and Observations sheets (one for teacher) 6 exit tickets (Before you fly away) 1 piece of poster paper with a pre-made bar graph 4 different colored markers

Comment: fave: NancyLee Bergey suggested adding another station so that each student would be able to use their tool at two different stations. I wanted to limit the number of variables to eventually be charted, so instead I decided to allow the partners to switch off, so that every student got to use his or her tool at every station.

Classroom Arrangement and Management The six students will start seated at a round table in a small room on the first floor of Penn Alexander. For the experiment they will rotate in pairs to three different stations, but only at the teachers prompting; they must wait until the teacher determines that every group is ready to switch (including having cleaned up their materials for the next group) before they can move. Any activity involving water and a large amount of small materials runs the risk of moving quickly into messy territory. As such, before I distribute materials I will remind students that we need to respect the space and the materials, and that any mess they make will be their responsibility to clean up, so they should do their best to minimize it. (The room where I conduct the lesson does have a sink and paper towels available.) I will also point out that each group needs to use all the materials, so if one group scatters all the beans, for example, their peers will not have the materials they need to continue the experiment. Similarly, the tools, while not dangerous if used properly, could become dangerous when used inappropriately, so I will remind them of science safety (keeping the tools away from their faces and at table level). If any student demonstrates that he or she cannot be trusted with the messier materials or the tools, he or she will be relegated to full-time timer. Plan Launch Hook: Bird Pictures (5 min.) ! Teacher establishes norms and expectations right away: raising hands to speak, being respectful of the space and each other, listening carefully to directions. ! Teacher tells students, I really had fun on our trip to the zoo the other week. I especially enjoyed seeing the birds, in part because theyre all just so different. Teacher tapes up pictures of 3 birds and names them: Brown Pelican, Yellow Warbler, and Keel-billed Toucan. ! Teacher asks students to share anything they notice about the birds, paying special attention to how they are alike and how they are different. Possible student

Comment: fave: I opted for these three birds (instead of my initial five) because a) three seemed more manageable given time constraints, and b) I wanted to use the spoon, the tweezers, and the tongs as tools.

responses include size, coloration, length of neck, feet, plumage style, and beaks. Teacher accepts and comments on all observations. ! When a student mentions beaks, teacher says, Yes, lets focus on beaks. What specifically do you notice about their different beaks? Likely responses include color, size, and shape. Teacher records these observations on the board. ! Teacher asks for students to share their thoughts about why the beaks might be so different: Is there a reason? Possible responses include eating and, probably less likely, attracting a mate (coloration) or fighting (defense). Introduction of Core Concept (2 min.) ! Teacher explains: Youve touched on a really important scientific idea here! Birds have different beaks because their beaks have to do different jobs. What do I mean by that? What jobs do they do? Students may say that beaks are different because of the types of food they eat. Teacher pushes for elaboration: Why do beaks need to be different for different types of food? Is it about the size? Shape? Strength? Important ideas are that they eat different types of foods, and they get their foods in different ways. ! Teacher tells students that all animals have features like this, and that the idea is known as an adaptation: a body part or behavior that helps an animal survive in its environment. Sometimes these adaptations have to do with getting and eating food, like these birds beaks. Can you think of another example of an animal adaptation that helps it get food? What other kinds of adaptations can you think of? If students need prompting, teacher continues, What else do animals need, besides food? Students are likely to know water and safety. Can you think of any animals that are adapted to get water/safety in a particular way? Work and Explore Introducing and Modeling the Activity (7 min.) ! Teacher says, For now were going to focus on the birds beak adaptations as they relate to food. Were going to explore how useful these beak adaptations really are by doing an experiment where you will imagine you are birds. ! Teacher introduces the three toolsbig spoon, tweezers, and tongsand explains that each one represents a different beak. Teacher then takes out and introduces three different foods: packing peanuts floating in a pie tray of water, dry rice in a pie tray, and big marshmallows in a pie tray. ! Teacher tells students that they will be assigned partners, and that each pair will have a tool: Its your job to figure out how effective your tool is at collecting each type of food. What data do you suggest we look at to judge the tools effectiveness? Teacher takes suggestions. I predict that the most likely response will be See how much we can get, but if people offer other suggestions in addition to that one, teacher says, Those are all great ways of measuring the effectiveness of these tools. Today were going to focus on how much food we can collect in a certain amount of time. ! Teacher tells students, Before I give you your tools, I want to remind you that they are to be used only for the experiment, and only in a safe way. None of these tools is dangerous, but if you use them the wrong way, they can cause problems. Teacher asks students for recommendations about how we can handle the tools safely.

! Teacher assigns partners (which will be determined in advance) and gives one tool to each pair. Teacher says, Take a moment to carefully observe your tool. What do you notice? Start by just looking. When youve had a chance to look closely, you can observe it in other waysby picking it up, for example. Just remember to be safe with the tools. ! As students observe the tools, teacher gives one Predictions and Observations sheet to each student. Teacher reminds students to write their names and date at the top. Teacher then models circling the correct tool, circling the words that describe their tools, and predicting which food their tool will be best at picking up. Teacher gives the students about two minutes to complete the sheet. ! Teacher says, Okay, put your predictions asidelets get ready to test them. Teacher hands out one Data Collection sheet to each pair. Teacher explains, Each pair will start at one station, and youll get a chance to rotate to all three. One of you will be the timer; you must watch the clock and tell your partner when to start and when to stop. The other will use your tool to move as much food as you can from the tray into your stomach [indicating a cup] in one minute. Teacher models using the sheet while explaining, When one minute is up, youll record how much food you collected under Partner 1. Lets say Amalia went first, so she would write her name here for Partner 1, and then record how many packing peanuts she collected here. Then she puts the packing peanuts back into the water, and she and her partner switch: Now its Colins turn to collect for one minute while Amalia watches the clock. Record how much Partner 2 collected in the chart, then add up how much Partner 1 and Partner 2 collected and write that number in the Total column. You may also make any notes you want. When everyone is done at their first station well rotate stations until every group has done all three. ! Teacher takes student questions, then assigns each pair to a station. Partner Work: Bird Beaks Activity (10-15 min.) ! Teacher reminds students to be careful with their tools, to respect the space and each other, and to avoid making a mess: Dont splash the water or spill the beans, and clean up any accidents that may happen. ! Students go to their first stations and do the activity as described above. Teacher rotates among the groups, offering support as needed. ! After about 8 minutes, teacher tells students that they have 3 minutes left to collect data, and that when they are done they should move back to their seats to look at their data. Charting the Data (8 min.) ! Teacher tells students to total their data and answer the last question on the Data Collection sheet. While they do this, teacher hangs poster paper graph on wall. ! Teacher says, I could tell from observing and talking with you that you were making some really great discoveries and observations. Id like to combine all of our data so that we can look at it and analyze it together. Heres a bar graph where we can easily look at all of our data. ! Teacher asks each group to share their data one at a time. With student input, teacher plots the findings. Debrief and Wrap Up

Comment: fave: I wanted to give the students time to observe their tools and make informed predictions, but I also didn't want to take too much time writing extensively. NancyLee Bergey suggested that I give each student a list of describing words from which to choose. This seems like an effective way to cut down on time but still allow students to think carefully about their tools.

Comment: fave: Initially I intended to have students help me craft this graph from scratch, including suggesting the type of graph to use, but I was concerned that this would take too much time. NancyLee confirmed that it would probably take time away from the main focus of the lesson, which is not graphing, so I decided to prepare the bar graph ahead of time.

Analyzing and Interpreting the Data (10 min.) ! Teacher asks for a student to explain how to read the graph: So how can this graph help us figure out how effective our tools were? Teacher prompts for students to point out the relationship between the height of the bars and the amount of food collected. Questions to start and guide discussion include: " What are some things we notice about the data? " Lets look at the spoon first. How effective was it at picking up the packing peanuts? The beans? The marshmallows? " Were some tools better for different foods than others? " Was there any tool that worked well for more than one food? " How did our findings align with your predictions? ! Teacher connects the findings to the birds: Some tools clearly worked better for different types of foods. What might this tell us about beak adaptations? " How might a birds beak shape be related to the food it eats? " Based on what youve observed about these tools, which beaks do you think they represent [from amongst the photographs]? " What might the foods represent? ! As students guess, teacher reveals which bird each tool represents, and which food each fake food item represents. ! Teacher asks, If you were a bird with a beak like these tweezers, which food would you probably eat? Which food would you be least likely to eat? Teacher then asks for students to explain why its important for birds to have different shaped beaks, and how this experiment represented examples of animal adaptations. ! Students complete a short exit slip (Before you fly away) on which they match the bird to its food before leaving. Assessment of Goals and Objectives ! The opening discussion will serve as an opportunity to the assess students prior knowledge about birds, the various needs of animals (most importantly food, water, and safety), and how their body parts serve those needs. ! The students predictions about the tools effectiveness will demonstrate understanding of the idea that tools, because of their individual shapes and sizes, are better suited to particular tasks than others. ! Data Collection sheets will demonstrate how well the students understood the tasks, followed directions, and gathered and recorded data. ! Discussion of the data will provide opportunities to assess the students understanding of what the graph represents, ability to compare the effectiveness of the tools, and ability to translate the tools effectiveness to the functions of different bird beaks. ! Students will complete an exit slip that asks them to match each bird with its ideal food, which will serve as a more formal assessment of their understanding of the relationship between the models activity (tools and fake foods) and real birds beaks and corresponding diets. Anticipating Students Responses
Comment: fave: NancyLee suggested this as a way to wrap up the discussion and a quick written assessment. I agree that this would be a great way to check for understanding.

Comment: fave: This is a new addition; see comment above.

! Students will come to this activity with varying levels of background knowledge about animal adaptations. As such, the teacher will allow students who are familiar to provide several examples, and encourage even those who have not heard of it to offer guesses based on their new understanding. ! Students are familiar with bar graphs, however they may find it challenging to come up with a way to chart multiple variables on such a graph. For this reason the teacher will design the graph on which to chart student data and making it explicitly clear what each bar represents (using color coding and clear labeling). Accommodations ! If any student expresses or demonstrates doubt about his or her ability to use any of the tools (for any reason, but possibly due to still-developing motor control or concerns about safety), he or she will be offered a more appropriate tool choice. The spoon is probably the most easy to manipulate; the tongs the next easiest; and the tweezers the most difficult.
Comment: fave: NancyLee pointed out that making a student who can't work well with the tools the permanent Timer/Recordkeeper might make those jobs be seen as punishment, when in fact they are very important. As such I will make every effort to give every student a tool with which he or she feels comfortable.