A Learning Cycle-Project WILD

“Everybody Needs a Home” - Project Wild

Teacher’s Guide

Grade Level(s): K-4

Subject(s):
Interdisciplinary
Arts/Visual Arts
Science/Animals

Duration: 35 - 40 minutes

Description: Animals need a place in which to find food and water. They also need enough space in which to live and find the food, water and shelter they need. Home is more like a "neighborhood" that has everything in it that is needed for survival. The major purpose of this activity is for students to realize that animals need a home.

Goals: Students will be able to generalize that people and other animals share a basic need to have a home for survival.

Objectives: Students will be able to:
draw a picture of their homes
discuss the differences and similarities between homes
explain why people, animals, and birds need a home

Materials:
drawing paper
crayons
pictures of animals and where they live

Exploration:
1. Ask students to draw a picture of where they live – or to draw a picture of the place where a person they know lives. Ask the students to include pictures in their drawing of the things they need to live where they do; for example, a place to cook and keep food, a place to sleep, and a neighborhood. 2. Once the drawings are finished, have a discussion with students about what they drew. Ask the students to point out the things they need to live that they included in their drawings. 3. Make a “gallery of homes” out of the drawings. Point out to the students that everyone has a home. 4. Ask the students to close their eyes and imagine: a bird's home, an ant's home, a beaver's home, the President's home, their home. 5. Show the students pictures of different places that animals live. 6. Discuss the differences and similarities among the different homes with the students. Talk about the things every animal needs in its home: food, water, shelter and space in which to live, arranged in a way that the animal can survive. 7. Summarize the discussion by emphasizing that although the homes are different, every animal – people, pets, farm animals and wildlife – needs a home. 8. Talk about the idea that a home is actually bigger than a house. In some ways, it is more like a neighborhood. For animals, we can call that neighborhood a “habitat”. People go outside their homes to get food at a store, for example. Birds, ants, beavers and other animals have to go out of their “houses” (places of shelter) to get the things they need to live.

Concept Development:
1. Name three reasons why people need homes and three reasons why animals need homes.
2. Draw a picture of an animal in its habitat and tell how the habitat meets the animal's needs for survival.
Expansion:
1. Pick an animal and research where it lives, then use clay and other materials to build a model and present it to the class
2. Take the students outside and look for animal shelters
3. Draw a picture of a home for an aquatic species

Useful Internet Resources:

Canada's Aquatic Environments http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/
National Wildlife Federation--Backyard Wildlife Habitat http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/


“Everybody Needs a Home” - Project Wild

Student’s Guide

Materials:
drawing paper
crayons
pictures of animals and where they live

Exploration:
1. Draw a picture of where you live – or draw a picture of the place where a person you know lives. Include pictures in your drawing of the things they need to live where they do; for example, a place to cook and keep food, a place to sleep, and a neighborhood.
2. Once the drawings are finished, have a discussion with the teacher and other students about what they drew. Point out the things they need to live that they included in their drawings.
3. Make a “gallery of homes” out of the drawings, by taping your drawings to the wall.
4. Close your eyes and imagine: a bird's home, an ant's home, a beaver's home, the President's home, their home.
5. Look at pictures of different places that animals live.
6. Discuss the differences and similarities among the different homes with the other students and teacher. Talk about the things every animal needs in its home: food, water, shelter and space in which to live, arranged in a way that the animal can survive.

Concept Development:
1. Name three reasons why people need homes and three reasons why animals need homes. 2. Draw a picture of an animal in its habitat and tell how the habitat meets the animal's needs for survival.

Expansion:
1. Pick an animal and research where it lives, then use clay and other materials to build a model and present it to the class
2. Go outside with your class and look for and try to identify animal shelters
3. Draw a picture of a home for an aquatic species


Philosophical Underpinnings of Lesson

This lesson is a Learning Cycle because the students are given a task, drawing various homes and/or habitats, and then the teacher helps them develop an understanding of why homes are important for virtually all organisms and what factors they should provide for an organism’s survival, as well as the survival of its offspring. Terms such as habitat, resources, environment and so on may even be introduced. The assessment and expansion allow students to further develop and reinforce the concepts. The structure of science is met because the students sequentially apply a process to develop a concept or set of facts and terms and then expand them and even apply them to their own lives.

This lesson meets the central purpose of American education because students are developing the ability to think, and are specifically using the rational powers of comparing, inferring, and recalling in the first phase of drawing. In the second phase of this Learning Cycle the student must interpret and draw generalizations from the data (drawings) in order to develop the new concept of the importance of shelter, and calls upon the rational powers of inferring, comparing, recalling, and synthesizing. In the third phase of this Learning Cycle (the assessment and expansion) the student must expand the concept by explaining, predicting, and applying the generalizations, patterns, and models developed previously by producing and presenting a three-dimensional model. This requires the rational powers of imagining, evaluating, and deducing.

National standards are met because in the National Science Education Standards (NSES) content requirements, “Organisms and Environments” are listed under Level K-4. It also meets the Unifying Concepts and Process Standards of “Evidence, Models, and Explanation”, as well as “Form and Function”. Also, the process of science is clearly shown in this Learning Cycle, and these standards are given as:

· Understanding of scientific concepts.
· An appreciation of "how we know" what we know in science.
· Understanding of the nature of science.
· Skills necessary to become independent inquirers about the natural world.
· The dispositions to use the skills, abilities, and attitudes associated with science

The state of Oklahoma’s Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) are also satisfied by this lesson as the Process Standards for grades K-4 of Observation, Classifying, Inquiring, Interpreting, and Communicating are all covered. In Grades One and Three, there are Content Standards under Life Science called “Characteristics and Basic Needs of Organisms”, so this unit is also conforming to state standards.

Bibliographic Note:

Project Wild K-12 Curriculum and Activity Guide, Council for Environmental Education, 2004 PASS Objectives, Oklahoma State Board of Education, 2002.http://sde.state.ok.us/home/defaultie.htmlNational Science Education Standards from the National Research Council, 1995.http://books.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/Educational Policies Commission. (1961). the central purpose of American education.