lUsing the Illinois’ NaturalResources Trading Cards,have the students separatethe cards into groups oftheir choosing. When they

are done, ask them why they grouped the cards in themanner that they did? Answers will vary. You want themto start thinking about related traits in organisms.

l When everyone has contributed to the discussion, mixup the cards and ask the students to separate them thistime into three categories: animals, plants and every-thing else. Now have the students discuss what theylooked for when they made the decision to put a cardinto one of the three piles.

l Take the pile of plants cards and ask the students to sep-arate it into more groups. ey may come up with cat-egories like trees, shrubs and flowers or yellow flowers,white flowers and trees. How they define the categoriesis not important. Looking for similarities is the issue.

l Repeat the process with the animal card pile. If one oftheir categories is mammals, have them look closely atthese organisms. If they did not select a group of mam-mals, guide the students in finding the mammals in thecards. Talk about what mammals are like. Ask the stu-dents to discuss where mammals might live. Ask themwhat mammals might need to survive.

l e Biodiversity of Illinois CD-ROM series can be usedto show students some of the mammals in Illinois.

l You can also search the CD-ROMs to show studentsmammals that live in their county. Should you needassistance in operating the CD-ROMs, video podcastsfrom the IDNR provide guidance for CD-ROM opera-tion, uses and available information. Additional videopodcasts and a video provide more information andimages of these animals.

l Students should observe the mammals to look forclues as to where they live, what they do, what theylook like, when they are active and any other obviousfeatures.

l Field guides included in the resources trunk have pic-tures of mammals, skulls, tracks, scats and other featuresfor familiarization and reference.

K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plantsand animals (including humans) need to survive.

BACKGROUND: See the Background Information, especially theCharacteristics, Activity Patterns, Feeding, Mobility and Hibernationsections.

OBJECTIVE: Students will use Illinois-specific mammal resources to observe and draw conclusions.

MATERIALS: Illinois Wild Mammals resources trunk, Illinois Wild Mammals video, Illinois Wild Mammals videopodcasts, Illinois Mammals activity book, A Year with Wildlife activity book and SMARTBoard™ activities, IllinoisWild Mammals poster, Illinois Furbearers poster, Illinois’ Natural Resources Trading Cards and associated posters

ILLINOIS: NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

IllinoisWild Mammals

Suggested Activities

Activity 1 Activity 2

l Inside the resources trunk are several mammal rem-nants, including skulls. A skull can provide much infor-mation about the animal it was a part of. e type ofteeth, number of teeth, arrangement of teeth, size ofskull and size of the brain case are all characteristics thatstudents can observe and discuss. At this point, don’ttell the students the name of the animal associated witheach skull.

l Start by asking the students what a skull is and what itmight be for.

l Ask them to observe the skulls and separate them intocategories of their choice. Once the skulls are separated,ask the students how they determined their categories?Did teeth have anything to do with their categoryselection? If so, how? If not, ask the students to lookclosely at the teeth.

l What are teeth for? Have them predict what each of theanimals represented might eat based only on the differ-ent types and sizes of teeth.

l Show them a photo from the trading cards, CD-ROMs,posters or videos for each of the animals. Can theymatch the skull to the animal it came from? How didthey do it?

l Now have them find out if their feeding predictionswere correct. You can use the information in the trad-ing cards, posters, CD-ROMs, activity books and fieldguides to help. Does the size of the skull relate to whatthe mammal eats?

l Pelts are the preserved skin and hair of mammals. eycan be observed to see the traits of color, hair length,hair type, hair size and other features. e size of the peltmay not be a good trait as sometimes only fragments ofan entire pelt are included in the trunk. At this timedon’t tell the students the name of the animal associatedwith each pelt.

l Ask the students to separate the pelts into categoriesthey decide upon. Discuss how they made their choicesand what each category represents.

l If they didn’t use color as a factor, now separate thepelts into categories by color. Does the color of the peltindicate where the mammal might live or when itmight be active?

l See if the students can match each pelt to the animal itcame from by using images in the field guides, posters,trading cards, CD-ROMs and other resources.

l Look closely at the different types of hairs on the pelts.What can the students tell you about mammal survivalneeds by observing the pelts?

ILLINOIS: NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

Activity 3 Activity 4

ILLINOIS: NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

l Because of their habits (many are nocturnal, many aresmall and live in tall grasses, some live underground,etc.), you rarely see some of our mammals, but you canoften find what they leave behind. One of the thingsthey leave behind is scat. Scat is solid waste material. Itcan be used to identify the animal that deposited it. Scatcan also tell you some characteristics of that animal.While the scat replicas in the trunk have the correct size,their color is not the same that you would find innature. Do not tell the students the name of the animalassociated with each scat replica at this point.

l Ask the students to separate the scat into categoriesthey decide upon. Ask them how they decided uponthe categories?

l If they didn’t already do so, now separate the scat by size.Show them a photograph of each animal that pro-duced the scat and have them try to match the scat tothe correct animal. Do they see any patterns (size ofthe scat related to the size of the mammal that pro-duced the scat, size of scat related to what the animaleats or how much the animal eats, etc.)?

l Another sign that mammals leave behind are tracks.Tracks can be observed for size, number of toes, direc-tion the animal was traveling and possibly what the an-imal was doing. Tracks can also tell you which animalmade them. e track replicas in the trunk are actualsize, have the correct number of toes and are specificto the animal. At this time, do not tell the studentswhich mammal is associated with each track.

l Ask the students to separate the tracks into categoriesthey decide upon. Once the tracks have been sepa-rated, ask them how they determined their categories.

l If they didn’t already do so, separate the tracks by size,then by the number of toes. Note: the number of toeson the front foot may be different from the number oftoes on the back foot.

l Show them a photograph of the mammals responsiblefor the tracks and ask them to try to match the track tothe animal that made it. Have them explain their answers.

l What do the students think that tracks can tell us aboutthese animals and their survival?

Activity 7

l Hold a discussion to pool the findings from each of theactivities. What do the students think these mammalsmust have to survive? Do all of them need the sameitems to survive?

Activity 5 Activity 6

ILLINOIS: NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

STEM Connections: Evaluations

Science:All of the activities shown above are science-basedand can be used for evaluations.

Technology: Students can learn to use the Biodiversity ofIllinois CD-ROMs to access and research information.ey can take photos of mammals that they find in theirschool yard or back yard. ey can also participate inProject Squirrel to collect and report data about squirrelsin their neighborhood.

Engineering: Students can design their own mammal. Itmust include all of the necessary traits for its survival, andthe students must explain them.

Mathematics: Students can measure skulls and tracksand record the data. ey can graph both of these datasets on the same graph and interpret the results. Studentscan count the teeth in each skull and relate that total tothe size of the skull, what the mammal eats and othersurvival traits.

TrainingAdditional training about Illinois mammals and on imple-menting this topic to support performance expectationK-LS1-1 can be obtained through ENTICE (Environmentand Nature Training Institute for Conservation Education)workshops from the IDNR. Tracks, Scats and Habitats,Reading the Signs and Illinois Wild Mammals are examplesof related workshops. See the “Resources” page for moreinformation. e Illinois Department of Natural ResourcesDivision of Education also provides training sessions atteacher conferences throughout the state.

Equal opportunity to participate in programs of the Illinois Department of NaturalResources (IDNR) and those funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service andother agencies is available to all individuals regardless of race, sex, nationalorigin, disability, age, religion or other non-merit factors. If you believe youhave been discriminated against, contact the funding source’s civil rightsoffice and/or the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, IDNR, One NaturalResources Way, Springfield, IL 62702-1271; 217/785-0067; TTY 217/782-9175.is information may be provided in an alternative format if required.

Contact the DNR Clearinghouse at 217/782-7498 for assistance.

Next Generation Science Standards © 2013, Illinois Department of Natural ResourcesDNR 44 – 10/13 • IOCI 14-0162