LfU and Adaptations

I am currently teaching a unit on animal adaptations, and how environments can dictate their physical or behavioral adaptations. Looking through the MyWorld resources and arcGIS was timely, in that it’s given me lots to think about for enriching my lessons. One such idea came from browsing the maps, and finding this “Upper Elementary biomes” map, where I could incorporate the idea of mapping into adaptations. The students I’m working with are in second grade, so not quite in the ‘upper elementary’ level, however the map is both simple enough to use with the 8 year olds, and interactive enough that they can glean information for research from it.

Later in the unit, when we talk about migration, hibernation, and other behavioural adaptations, we will come back to the map and track the change in environment. Using scenarios based on the tools this map affords, they can use in a given environment

Motivate: Introduce the activity as a biome research hunt. As a class, using either mind maps written on the board or the Padlet app, we brainstorm what the students think the different biomes are, and what their features include, simply projecting the map as is for the class, with the colours and legend. Students use their prior knowledge and assumptions to fill the brainstorms.

Construct: Students choose an animal to research, and record where they think the animal might live, doing a 321 Bridge activity, describing which biome they believe this animal lives in, and why. They then research the animal’s biome, and use the interactive map to determine features of the biome. Then, they complete the 321, using the map and research sites as the prompt for the bridge.

Refine: By seeing how their thinking changed before and after they used the research and maps to connect the biomes to the features of the animal, they will be able to link their understanding of why the animals have those features, and what potential adaptations might come from learning that the animal lives in a biome they didn’t anticipate. In this way, they verify and research for understanding.

As Edelson describes it, “Refinement of knowledge can also take the form of reinforcement, which increases the strength of connections to other knowledge structures through the traversal of those structures and increases the likelihood that those connections between knowledge structures will be found in the future” (Edelson, 2001). In this activity, by looking at their thinking before and after on the map, they can begin to not only connect features of the landscape to animal’s homes, but also start to look for patterns in the features different environments offer to living things (or patterns in the adaptations animals have developed). Their misconceptions are visible and relevant in being able to map out (pardon the pun) in the 321 Bridge where their thinking changed. This conceptual understanding informs their future analysis of other animal’s adaptations and helps them look for relevant patterns instead of memorizing facts about animals.

Reference:

Edelson, D.C. (2001). Learning-for-use: A framework for the design of technology-supported inquiry activities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,38(3), 355-385.