Fall+2009+Elementary+Animal+Project

=Fall 2009 Elementary Animal Project=

The MAGPI Life Science Team has developed an elementary project that will focus on students learning about animals. We have purposely designing this project to be very broad based so that teachers can tailor their involvement to meet the curricular needs of their classrooms.

The session design is as follows:
 * Video Conference Session 1: Students and teachers meet each other and the San Diego Zoo via video conferencing. The San Diego Zoo will offer a 45 minute presentation addressing adaptations, life cycles, and habitats possibly of the following animals: panda, komodo dragon, poison dart frog, monarch butterfly, and polar bear. Specific animals can not be determined until the day of the presentation depending on the health and behavior of the animal. The San Diego Zoo will offer a broad presentation that will address the identified lines of inquiry. Students should prepare several questions ahead of time about their specific topic and broader questions about the class of animals presented (e.g. reptiles, mammals, insects, etc.). **(DATE: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 @ 10:15 am to 11:30 am)**
 * Video Conference Session 2: Students and teachers meet for a second time to participate in a video conference game of Animal Jeopardy. Students will prepare questions and answers based upon classroom instruction and information gathered from Video Conference Session 1 interaction with the San Diego Zoo. Teachers will forward student prepared questions and answers to the MAGPI Life Science Team one week prior to the second session. The MAGPI Life Science Team will prepare and MC the game show. (**DATE: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 10:15 am to 11:30 am)**

This project may address the following Pennsylvania State Science Standards: [|Click here for a link to the complete document.]

3.2. Inquiry and Design 3.2.4. GRADE 4 A. Identify and use the nature of scientific and technological knowledge. • Distinguish between a scientific fact and a belief. • Provide clear explanations that account for observations and results. • Relate how new information can change existing perceptions. B. Describe objects in the world using the five senses. • Recognize observational descriptors from each of the five senses (e.g., see-blue, feel-rough). • Use observations to develop a descriptive vocabulary. C. Recognize and use the elements of scientific inquiry to solve problems. • Generate questions about objects, organisms and/or events that can be answered through scientific investigations. • Design an investigation. • Conduct an experiment. • State a conclusion that is consistent with the information.

3.3. Biological Sciences 3.3.4. GRADE 4 A. Know the similarities and differences of living things. • Identify life processes of living things (e.g., growth, digestion, react to environment). • Know that some organisms have similar external characteristics (e.g., anatomical characteristics; appendages, type of covering, body segments) and that similarities and differences are related to environmental habitat. • Describe basic needs of plants and animals. B. Know that living things are made up of parts that have specific functions. • Identify examples of unicellular and multicellular organisms. • Determine how different parts of a living thing work together to make the organism function. C. Know that characteristics are inherited and, thus, offspring closely resemble their parents. • Identify characteristics for animal and plant survival in different climates. • identify physical characteristics that appear in both parents and offspring and differ between families, strains or species. D. Identify changes in living things over time. • Compare extinct life forms with living organisms.