Whose Clues/Creekside Studies | |||
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Overview & objectives: Students look for and try to identify animal tracks and other signs of wildlife. They figure out the source of the signs and what the creature was doing when it made these signs. Studying our creek helps students understand it better. The velocity of the water can determine the types of organisms found, the amount of sediment and oxygen present and the health of the creek. |
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Rotation 2 | |||
WHERE | Beach | ||
WHO | Parents and 7th/8th Graders | ||
MATERIALS | Popsicle sticks Copies of “Whose Clues?” student pages (one for 2 students) Clipboards Pencils Pictures of various animal clues Stopwatch Tape measure Calculator Lab sheets Boats Thermometers Rubber Boots |
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ACTIVITIES | Background: All animals leave behind clues to their activities: what they’ve been eating and where they’ve been walking, running, resting or rearing their young. Tracks, among the most obvious clues of an animal’s presence, are most easily found in the soft mud or sand near creeks and streams. Each type of animal leaves a distinct footprint distinguished by number of toes, class marks, size and patterns of the tracks. Other marks are not as distinctive as tracks but they may still be important clues. For example, claw marks on smooth bark indicate where squirrels, possums, or raccoons have been climbing. Narrow trails or pathways indicate the regular routes of deer, rabbits or raccoons. Scattered feathers or tufts of fur show where a predator captured or devoured a bird or mammal. The form and contents of droppings, also called scat, can reveal a lot about the animals living in the area and what they’ve been eating. The scat of a plant-eating animal tends to be small. Scat of carnivores and omnivores tends to be larger and may contain hair, bones, and undigested seeds. Other signs might be white splatters of birds and their feathers, flatten vegetation where animals suck as deer have been lying, or nests of a sort. Procedure: 1. Explain that the team will search for animal clues at the wetland and mark the clues with colored popsicle sticks 2. Each team of 2 will have a clipboard with copies of the student pages 3. Define search area boundaries and set a search time of 10 minutes 4. After the search time, each team will take the class on a tour to show the stick-marked clues and tell what creature made them and what they were doing when they were made 5. Remove the markers before the next group |
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Differentiation: how will you provide support for different learning abilities? For a complete list click here | |||
NGSS Alignment Full, more detailed outline of standards & progressions → NGSS Progressions |
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Earth Science | Life Science LS1.A Structure and function LS1.B Growth and development of organisms LS1.D- Information Processing LS2.A-Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems LS2.C - Ecosystem dynamics, functioning & resilience LS2.D Social interactions and group behavior LS3.A-Inheritance of Traits LS4.A - Evidence of common ancestry LS4.B - Natural Selection LS4.C Adaptation LS4.D Biodiversity and humans | Physical Science |