Animal Adaptations and Life Cycles Inquiry

Susan Swenson, Media Specialist andErica Gilliatt, Third Grade

Why Inquiry?•Student-led discovery of information•Teaches questioning, information gathering and note taking skills

Why animals?Essential Questions:•What are adaptations?•What steps are in a life cycle?•How are animal groups alike and different?•How do adaptations impact survival?Skills learned through the process:•Wait and see!

Step 1: Building BackgroundJanuary 4-15

•Common Vocabulary•Life Cycle•Adaptation•Animal Behaviors•Observations

•KWL Chart•Distance Learning – Indianapolis Zoo

Step 2: Choose a topicJanuary 18-29

•Students are introduced to resources available for information gathering.•Working from a list of animals available at the zoo, students choose three they are interested in learning more about.

Step 3: Locate and Gather InformationFebruary 1-9

•Study trip to the Indianapolis Zoo for field notes and photography•Resources: •Destiny, Inspire, Computer Lab (Internet), SIRS, Grolier and Worldbook Online

•Citing Sources•Students gather sources about their specific animal.

Step 4: Read Resources, Refine QuestionsFebruary 10-17

•Students form questions about their animal that they want to investigate, working on creating narrow, manageable topics.•Students learn strategies for reading nonfiction text.•Students read and highlight materials they have already collected.

Steps 5-6: Organize and Categorize, Answer and Apply

February 18-26•Students use note taking strategies to record information from their resources.•Post-it notes•Webs•Note taking folder

•Students use Kidspiration to diagram their animal’s life cycle.

Step 7: Produce and PresentMarch 1-19

•Students collaborate with peers who have been studying the same animal to compose narration for a Photostory video. •Students create a story board to plan their video.•Students create a bibliography (using Noodletools) to identify sources.•Final products are shared with families here at Gallery Night!!!

Step 8: Reflect and EvaluateOngoing, March 24-25

•Students reflect weekly on their progress and the inquiry process.•At the end of the process, students evaluate their performance and identify new questions and things they might have done differently.•Students are assessed by the teachers using an ICAN rubric.