How can I change this curriculum to be filled with technology?
Go Here to see how I did it:
Technofied Lesson Plan
Insects
Grade Level: 1st- 3rd
Program Length: 1 ½ hours
Objectives:
1. To understand the characteristics of insects.
2. To be introduced to different kinds of insects
in Montana.
3. To investigate insects in their natural
habitat.
4. To understand insects metamorphosis.
Key Terms:
Insect: an organism that has 6 legs, 3
segments, 1 pair antennae and 2 sets of wings.
Metamorphosis: a profound change in
form from one stage to the next, in the life history of an organism.
Materials:
Insect life cycle models Butterfly Poster Compound Eye
Jars Nets Hand Lens
Procedure:
Introduction:
Tell the students that we are going to
start the day off with a short story about the day in a life of one type of insect:
the lady bug. After reading the story, explain to the students that the lady
bug is just one of millions of different types of insects in the world. In fact, on earth, there are more insects
than any other living creature. Explain to the students that there are so many
different types of insects that you have trouble keeping up with all of
them. Ask the students to help you
create a list of as many insects as the class can think of. Make a list of about 12 – 15 insects on the
top half of the white board. If the
students name an organism, for instance a spider, that is not an insect, don’t
correct them just yet, go ahead and add it to the list. If the students do not name a caterpillar as
an insect, go ahead and add it to the list as well.
Activity 1: Insect Characteristics
After you have listed several
“insects” have the students help you draw a simple diagram of an insect on the
bottom half of the white board; include the following features:
1.
Head
a.
Antenna
b.
Eyes
i. Compound
ii. simple
c.
Mouth parts
i. Mandible
(ants)
ii. Piercing
(mosquitoes)
iii. Sponge-like
(flies)
iv. Proboscis/straw-like
(butterflies)
2.
Thorax
a.
Wings (2 pair)
b.
Legs (6)
c.
Teympanum (the “ear”)
3.
Abdomen
a.
Spiracles
b.
Stinger/silk organs (if any)
After you have drawn the insect, have
the students go through the list of “insects” that you made earlier. Check off those animals that are true insects
and cross off the ones that are not.
Caterpillars can be confusing for students. They might have more than six legs, but they
are baby butterflies that are true insects.
Remind the students that the six leg rule applies only to the adult
stage of an insect’s life.
· 1 inch long grasshopper can jump 20 inches 5
inches= 1 human jumps 100 feet, 25 feet off the ground
· Circulatory System: open system where blood
spends a lot of time flowing freely within body cavities where it makes direct
contact to tissues and organs. (heart is like a turkey baster)
· Humans have closed system w/arteries, veins
and heart.
Activity 2: Insect Metamorphosis
Stages
of Insects (show the students
the butterfly life-cycle poster to give an example of each of the following
stages of metamorphosis)
1)
Egg
2)
Larva – small wingless creatures that
look very different from the adults, like a caterpillar for butterflies or
nymph, which is just a smaller version of the adult
3)
Pupa – the larva feeds and grows until
it becomes a pupa. Inside the pupa, the
body changes into an adult insect.
4)
Adult – mate and lay eggs
Put the students in groups of 4-5 and
assign each group an adult and an insect life cycle model. Each group will
participate in a relay race collecting one item at a time. After every student
has collected an item, have them put the models in the correct order of their
life cycle. Repeat until each group uses each different insect life cycle.
Activity 3: Insect Investigation
Have students become detectives.
Have students partner or form groups of three and give each group a bug
net, hand lens and jar so that everyone has something to do. Instruct the
students not to catch bees or butterflies.
For example, look for dead bugs, webs, cocoons, egg cases, beetle galleries…
If trying to find live insect: look under logs and rocks…and try
to examine the three body parts, figure out what the insect is, and see if they
can identify any adaptations that the insect has. Place insects that are caught
into baby food jars. After about 10
minutes of insect gathering regroup and discuss the different insects
found.
Conclusion:
v Why
are insects important to our world?
v Where do they fit in the food chain?
v How do humans benefit from insects? (honey from honeybees, people eat insects,
pollinate plants, ladybugs eat other bugs that eat crops)
Variations:
A. Metamorphosis Skit
Put the students in groups of 4 and assign
each group a well known species of insect.
Assign one adult to each group to be the narrator. Give the groups 5-10 minutes to develop a
skit that that tells the insect’s metamorphosis story. Have each group act out their skits while the
rest of the class tries to guess what insect they are. This should take no more than 10 minutes.
B.
Strategies for Survival – Adaptations and Communication
v Ants
communicate with each other through scent signals. When an ant finds a crumb, it hauls it back
to the nest while leaving a scent trail from its bottom. Other ants will follow the trail to find more
crumbs.
v Honeybees
communicate with each other through elaborate dances.
v Activity:
Before the program, prepare several scent jars using things like: garlic,
vanilla, almond extract, anise, and other scents. With their eyes closed, challenge the
students to identify the scents.
v Insect Communication:
o
Tactile: physical
contact, with antennae. With ants very important for individual recognition.
o
Chemical: sends
messages with chemicals (pheromones; within same species for mating or warning
or allelochemicals; outside species for repellents)
o
Acoustic: sound
waves sent to others like a mating call
o
Visual:
coloration and signals (butterflies and moths and light bugs)
Go Here to see how I did it:
Google Docs
Technofied Lesson Plan
Go Here to see how I did it:
Google Docs
Technofied Lesson Plan
No comments:
Post a Comment