Wild Things Invent a never-been-seen-before species Inspired by: Marcy Barton: 21C & Common Core Curriculum Specialist/Veteran K8 teacher Recommended grade level 2nd - 6th Common Core standards *See Appendix for complete list Cross curricular integration subjects English & Language Arts, Writing Strategies, Mathematics, Science, Social Science (Economics), Design Process, Visual & Performing Arts Project Overview This project highlights student creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking, permitting students to invent a new animal species, design its ideal habitat, and to engage in authentic problem solving through analysis of costs to build and maintain its environment and provide for its health and safety. Student objective Combine and apply researched material with personal experience, engage in authentic problem solving and design. 1 of 13
1. Set Up Play with Scoodle Jam Allow adequate time for students to play with Scoodle Jam. Demonstrate and encourage exploration with the following: Combine drawings with stickers, text, and photos to communicate ideas. Write (stylus suggested), type, and use talk bubbles to label, describe, and explain things. Select an appropriate template for a specific task (e.g. grid paper for graphing, flow chart for sequenced events or ideas). Practice saving work. Share work via email and/or your class s chosen cloud storage. Sync whiteboards with a classmate and collaborate 1:1 in real-time. Download the guide, Getting Started with Scoodle Jam, for detailed information. http://scootdoodle.com/eduguides Team Assignments Assign students to teams. Younger students may form teams of 4 or more. Older students may opt to work in pairs. Individual members of teams may work on a specific aspect of the project away from their teammates for a period of time on an unsynced whiteboard. Or, team members may choose to work side-by-side without synced screens. Finally, team members may wish to collaborate, 1 to 1, in pairs on synced whiteboards using WIFI and Edmodo accounts. NOTE: Teachers may wish to assign group roles in accordance with known classroom patterns of behavior. Suggested resources: Safe internet search for kids http://www.kidrex.org Wildlife studies http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/habitat/?ar_a=1 http://www.nhptv.org/wild/names.asp http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/adaptation/?ar_a=1 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/educators/teachstuds/svideos.html 2 of 13
2. Getting Started Introduce & Discuss New Vocabulary (Teachers and students are are encouraged to add/modify this list.) environment, habitat, species, native, prey, predator, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, nocturnal, climate, topography, adaptation, symbiosis, evolve environment - the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates. habitat - the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism species - a group of related animals, plants, people things that have similar qualities native - born, living, or growing naturally in a particular place prey - an animal that is hunted and killed by another for food predator - an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals climate - the usual weather conditions in a specific geographic location adaptation - a change by an organism or species to become better suited to its environment symbiosis - a relationship between two groups that work with and depend on each other evolve - to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state Preliminary Research Assign an animal/species for students to study or have them choose their own. Direct students to research the following - scaffold where necessary: Species category (kingdom, phylum, order, class, genus, species...) Species environment (topography & climate) Physical characteristics (weight, height, legs, wings, fins) Specialized survival mechanism(s) and physical adaptations Predators and survival techniques Eating habits (what, how much, how often) Daily life and life-cycle behaviors (how they eat, sleep, live, join herds, take care of newborns, etc) 3 of 13
For older students: Evidence of symbiosis or inter-relationship with other unlike species, evolution and adaptation. NOTE: You may wish to provide a checklist/or table to guide progress through the research phase. Curate Images Using the ipad camera, encourage students find and capture images relevant to their study from the web, from print media (e.g. books, magazines), and the natural world. Engage the students in discussion regarding primary and secondary source material, and the reliability of sources. Have students think critically about and explain their rationale for capturing a particular image. How will this image relate to your investigation? Students will - at a later point in the project - determine which images they will find most useful as they create stickers and/or backgrounds for their project in Scoodle Jam. Students should be encouraged to reflect on this image gathering process at the close of the project to ascertain their level of competency in the image selection. 4 of 13
3. Running the Project This Scoodle Jam project consists of nine templates - with prompts and questions - to get students thinking, visualizing, applying, and creating their community garden. Below is a narrative guide that will introduce the project and its nine templates to the class with greater detail. For younger students: Have students read template prompts out loud to the entire class before starting work on each template. Introduce the project The local Wildlife Preserve needs our help. Each team has been hired to invent a new, never-been-seen before species for the preserve. You will be working in teams to generate a new animal species by combining characteristics, behaviors, and traits of 2 or more known species. At the end of the project, each team will present their species creation to the class. This is a collaboration, which means you must work together to create your new species. I should hear you talking, listening, brainstorming, and sharing. Remember to SAVE your work on each page OR IT WILL BE LOST! Ready to begin? Open up Scoodle Jam and tap the Templates icon which you can find in the toolbar at the top of the whiteboard. Select the project titled Wild Things. You will see nine templates in the project. Open up the first template titled Species Name. 5 of 13
Template 1 & 2 Species name & characteristics We ll begin with creating your species. On the first template, brainstorm lots of different combinations for your new species. Discuss them and write them all down. Use your research notes as a reference tool. The more ideas you brainstorm the better. No idea is a bad idea. Select your funniest, favorite, and/or weirdest sets of species characteristics and combine the traits into one species. When you re done, brainstorm a name for your new species. On the second template, Characteristics & Behavior, write a description of your species and its behavior. Draw how it looks. Label things on your drawing to describe your species. To help students brainstorm a new name for their species, have them think about using the traits of their animals in the name, like Stink Squirrel for a skunk. For physical characteristics, have students think about weight, height, skin type, how it gets around, picks up food, eats food. For behaviors, have students think about how it finds food, how and where it sleeps, where it lives, raises its babies. 6 of 13
Template 3 & 4 Species habitat & food In this section, your team will use templates 3 and 4 to describe and illustrate your creature s ideal home environment and what it needs to eat to survive. Remember to include: an explanation for why your species is so well adapted to its environment your species physical traits that determine and help explain what it eats how much food your species must eat a day to survive Don t forget to SAVE as you go or your work will be lost! Have your students think about the topography and climate of its environment. Have students consider things like the specie s size, gender, teeth, mouth, claws, neck length, speed, eyesight, ability to swim. 7 of 13
Template 5 Species evolution We re moving on now to your specie s evolution --how it has changed over time. In this section, explain and show why your species has changed over time and what those changes are. Ask yourselves, did your species change the way it behaves to adapt to a different climate or the change in seasons - like bears hibernating in winter? Did your species develop different physical traits like longer necks or claws to help them hunt and forage for food? A resource for educational videos on evolution from PBS to share and discuss with your students: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/educators/ teachstuds/svideos.html Template 6: Predators Now that your team has created a unique species, what about its predators? Does it have any? What does it or they look like? How does it track down your species? By scent, footprints, antennae, night vision? How does it capture your species? Use template 6 to show and explain your thoughts. Don t forget to SAVE along the way or your work will be lost! Have your students create a chart and list the predator s traits to help organize their ideas. 8 of 13
Template 7 Survival traits We will now determine how well your species is equipped for survival. Describe and show how your animal protects itself against the elements, its predators, and/or change of seasons. List the special traits and behaviors that help keep your species alive. Take a few minutes to think if you need to make changes in your species design to help it survive better. If you wish, go back to your past designs and revise them. Encourage the students to focus on details of their species, like: Does your specie s skin color change to camouflage it from its predators? Does it have a long nose to gather food and to smell their predators? Does it spit poison or ink to keep their predators at bay? Template 8 You re the architects In this last part of the design phase, you will now be the architects of your specie s new home. Each team will create a blueprint of the habitat your species will live in. Remember to include things in your design that your species needs to be happy, safe, and healthy. Think about how big your species is and how much space it needs to live. Include the dimensions, height, length, and width in your designs. As you finish your blueprints, we ll work together to figure out how much material you ll need to construct the habitat and how much it will cost to build it. Have students think about where their species will get water, shelter, and food in the habitat they re designing. 9 of 13
Template 9 Supporting your species We re now going to figure out how much food your species eats a week, the total area of its habitat, and how much it will cost to feed and build its home. Use template 9 for your calculations. Let s start with figuring out how many pounds of food you will need to buy every week if your species eats 4 pounds of food a day. Next, using your money stickers, show me how much that food will cost every week if 1 pound of food costs $5.25. Write an equation to show how you came up with your answer. Next, let s figure out the area of your habitat using the dimensions you assigned in your blueprints. Now, use your money stickers to show how much it will cost to buy 119 feet of wood planks if the wood planks cost $1.89 a foot. Have your students list or illustrate the things they need to know to solve the questions before writing down an equation. 4. Wrap Up After your class has completed the project, allow time for each team to share, present, discuss, and reflect on each other s work, as well as their own. You may wish to have students reflect in written format. This reflection may be considered formative or summative assessment. Have students: Share what he/she likes about the presenting team s project deliverables. Complete the statement, I wish your team had... or Maybe next time you could... Ask the team one question about their project. Share a challenge they encountered in this project and how they worked through it. Share what they learned and liked most about the project. 10 of 13
5. Additional Activities Math 1. Calculate how many pounds of food your species needs to eat every month, and year to survive and how much it would cost to pay for that food every month and year. 2. Based on their habitat designs and how much their species eats, have students come up with their own problems to solve that use any four operations (+, -, x, division). 3. Have students share how they solved the word problems to show there are several different ways to answer a question. Organizational thinking 1. Using the Venn diagram, have students create sets based on the traits/ behaviors/predators, etc. of all the species created by the teams and show which traits and behaviors intersect. 2. Make a chart showing what fraction of the species have similar attributes. e.g.: Show what fraction of the species are: bi-peds, quadra-peds fly, swim, slither, hop 3. Make a chart or graph that compares species height, weight, length, skin type, carnivores, herbivores. ELA, Storytelling & design 1. Have students work together or individually to write a story, myth, or folktale about their species. 2. Have students work together to create a detailed map of the wildlife preserve. Include location for each species habitat, walkways, places for visitors to park and eat, and other areas visitors might need or want. 3. Have students create 3-D models of their creatures and construct a 2 or 3-dimensional model of the Wildlife Preserve and locate their animals within it. 11 of 13
6. Appendix: Common Core Standards (grade level.numbered standard) Reading, English & Language Arts Literature Strand 2.4, 3.4, 5.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.4 Informational Text Strand 2.4, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.7, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5, 4.7, 4.8, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 6.2, 6.4, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9 Foundational Skills Strand 2.3, 2.4, 3.3, 3.4, 4.4, 4.4, 5.3, 5.4 Writing Strand 2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 6.1, 6.2, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9 Speaking & Listening 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6 Strand Language Strand 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6 Mathematics Mathematical Practices 1-8 all grade levels Operations & Algebraic Thinking Strand 2.1, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 3.3, 3.7, 4.2, 4.3, 5.2, Number and Operations Base-Ten Strand 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.8, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.3, 5.4, 4.5, 4.6, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.7 Number Operations Fractions 3.1, 4.4,5.5, 4.6, 4.7,5.2, 5.6 Measurement & Data Strand 2.8, 2.10, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2 Ratios & Proportional Relationships Strand 6.1 Number System Strand 6.5, Expressions & Equations Strand 6.7, 6.8 Statistics & Probability Strand 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 Next Generation Science Physical Science 2.1.4, 4.3.2, 4.4.3, 6.3.3, 6.4.3, Earth Science 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.3.1, 4.3.1, 4.3.2, 5.3.1, 6.3.3, 6.3.4 Life Science 5.2.1, 6.1.8, 6.2.1, 6.2.2, 6.2.4, 6.2.5, Engineering Design 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 3.1.1, 4.1.1, 5.1.1, 3.1.2, 4.1.2, 5.1.2, 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.1.3, 6.1.4 History & Social Science 2.2, 2.4, 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 4.3 Visual & Performing Arts Visual Arts Strand 2.2.0, 2.4.0, 4.5.0, 3.2.0, 3.4.0, 3.5.0, 4.2.0, 4.4.0, 4.5.0, 5.2.0, 5.4.0, 5.5.0, 6.2.0, 6.4.0, 6.5.0 Music Strand 2.5.0, 3.5.0, 4.5.0, 5.5.0, 6.5.0 12 of 13
7. Appendix: 21st Century Skills Development Thinking Domain Manages complexity Understands abstract and symbolic images Connects differentiated path of thinking and learning Combines evidence, claims, beliefs Analyzes problems, arguments, causes, connections Applies a system for responding to unfamiliar situations Gathers relevant information Generates varied options for solution Solves real world problems Recognizes that there is not always one right answer. Living Domain Respects diverse perspectives. Accepts responsibility Works collaboratively with mutual respect Uses interpersonal skills to work with and guide others toward goal completion Takes responsibility for success or failure Sets goals and established priorities Contributes to and supports others through meaningful productivity Takes responsibility for the quality and accuracy of a product Doing Domain Applies communication skills in a variety of formats and contexts Engages in constructive dialogue Listens effectively to understand intent and content of all communications Articulates thoughts and ideas effectively Communicates in a variety of settings for varied audiences Searches, sorts, and collects information for multiple purposes Uses information to learn, produce, and create Accommodates and adjusts to changing situations or settings Plans strategically and purposefully Demonstrates effective self-management Faces obstacles realistically and works to over come them Stretches beyond mastery Uses multiple types of electronic software, programs, and apps Applies technology to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information Applies technology to create and innovate in various contexts 13 of 13