Lesson Plans

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    Lesson Plan
    What Is An Animal
    In this lesson students discuss the definition of an animal. What characteristics do all animals have in common? To introduce the subject the teacher gives a brief discussion of the five kingdoms (see reference below). What evidence is needed to decide that an organism is an animal? Students watch the video Sponges: Origins and reconsider the definition of an animal.

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    Komodo Sponge
    Lesson Plan
    Sponges Origins: Questions
    A list of questions about the characteristics of sponges to use after viewing the video Sponges: Origins.Shape of Life Sponges Worksheet. Students make sketches and write short answers to questions about the amazing world of sponges. The worksheet was created by Rachel Miller from Science From Scratch.A Powerpoint including questions to use while watching the video Sponges: Origins video. 

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    Lesson Plan
    Who Was Animal Eve?
    In this lesson students make a guess as to what was the first animal. The class watches the Sponge video from the shapeoflife.org and writes down what evidence they saw that sponges were the first animals. Then the class discusses what evidence they need to figure out what might have been the first animal. They watch the scientist video “Mitchell Sogin, Evolutionary Biologist: Proof of the First Animal” and write down the evidence that is presented for the sponge being the first animal.

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    Lesson Plan
    Nature’s Innovations
    Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, found his inspirations from nature. From trees to light to whale bones, Gaudi used solutions from nature for structural support or decoration. He is not unique in using natural engineering to solve problems in our daily lives. In this lesson, we will investigate how, through the process of evolution, animals have solved their engineering problems and how people have mimicked those natural solutions.

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    Lesson Plan
    World’s Most Awesome Invertebrate
    After note taking during the phyla episodes of the shapeoflife.org, student pairs will randomly pick an invertebrate from the hat. After doing more in-depth research on their chosen invertebrate, student pairs will design and create a flyer that will promote the invertebrate’s special abilities. Furthermore, the students will find at least one video clip of their invertebrate from the shapeoflife.org website to present to the class as evidence of their claims. Finally the student pair will argue why their invertebrate should be crowned the “World’s Most Awesome Invertebrate.”

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    Lesson Plan
    Phenomena-Driven Inquiry
    In this lesson students engage in the practice of science by observing behaviors using Shape of Life videos with the audio and closed captioning turned off.

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    Lesson Plan
    Activity: Invertebrate Critter Cards
    In this activity students explore how animals are classified. For centuries taxonomists have been classifying the diversity of animal life based on observations and measurements of animals’ body plans. And now, with DNA sequencing, scientists have for the most part confirmed the work of earlier taxonomists. Students will learn the characteristics that define five of the major invertebrate phyla by watching videos, reading and sorting animal cards. The phyla are: Cnidarians, Annelids, Arthropods, Molluscs, and Echinoderms.

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