Science Notes

06/12/2009 10:04

Notes: Charles Darwin

Bird Beak Design Lesson This is a lesson that teaches about bird's beak designs and how they are an adaptation to survive.

Bird Beak Design Worksheets and Notes Utilizing pictures and notes students can complete two worksheets.

World Wildlife Zoo Surprise, AZ

Adaptations Sheet Template- This is the format that your animal information sheets should be in. USE IT!!

ZOO ANIMAL LIST (90% of them)

Examples:

Example Filling Out an Animal Information Sheet.pdf (803,8 kB)

Animal Information Sheet EXAMPLE.pdf (292 kB)-Meerkat

Emu Example.doc (269,5 kB)

Requirements for Unit 4:

Individual Expectations

 

Each student is responsible for:

 

6 Behavioral Sheets/ Animal Information Sheets

ü  1 Reptile

ü  1 Aquatic

ü  1 Small Mammal

ü  1 Large Mammal

ü  1 Bird

ü  1 Student Choice

 

From those 6 animals you must have at least one animal that:

o   Is nocturnal

o   Migrates

o   Hibernates

 

(These can be each represented in three separate animals. Not all three characteristics need to be in the same animal.)

 

4-5 Observational Sheets

Taken from the zoo field trip.

 

Reflection Paper

 

·         Do you feel that we should have zoos?

·         (highlight thesis statement)

·         Give evidence that supports your statement. (underline the evidence with a colored pencil)

·         Include a graph that represents the data collected at the zoo.

Reference the graph within your paper.

·         Use at least five vocabulary words properly in the paper to help explain your statement. (highlight) (hibernation, nocturnal, beak design, habitat, adaptation, symbiotic relationship, competitive relationship, migration, protective coloration)

 

 

Group Expectations

 

Each group will work together to determine what animals they will observe at the zoo.

 

Each group will observe as many animals as the group has team members. So, if you have 4 people in your group, you observe 4 animals.

 

Each team member must contribute only ONE of their behavioral sheets to the group. This will be the sheet of the animal that the group will be observing.

 

Overall the team must observe only one animal in each of the categories:

ü  1 Reptile

ü  1 Aquatic

ü  1 Small Mammal

ü  1 Large Mammal

ü  1 Bird

*This means if the group only has four people, one of the categories will not be observed at the zoo.

 

Adaptation Play Significant Role in Human Evolution This is the reading done in class (higher level), where human adaptations are attributed to natural selection in genetics.

 

Human Behavioral Adaptations

 

 

Human Behavioral Adaptations

Tesselations and the Human Eye

NOTES FROM November 9th, 2009 

Timeline of the understanding of the brain PBS website brings a timeline of the scientific understanding of how the human brain works.

 "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die" by Country Joe McDonald

 

 

 

Career Fair

How to answer behavioral interview questions

 Article notes: December 11th and 14th

Article: “Adaptation plays significant role in human evolution” Science Daily

I.                    Genetics- study of genes and heredity

a.       Positive selection- natural selection/ only selecting traits that help you to survive in your environment

                                                               i.      Advantageous alleles- genes that help you survive

                                                             ii.      Selective sweep- Natural selection over a long period of time will create a population of animals that will have similar traits that help it in it’s environment

                                                            iii.      In humans…

1.       Lactose tolerance- humans are the only mammal that has the enzyme that helps to digest milk. 10,000 years ago humans started to use agriculture, and people began to drink milk.

2.       Malaria resistance- the gene that allows you to not die from Malaria (a disease)

3.       Pigmentation- the color of our skin controls how much nutrients our skin creates so that we don’t have too much or too little.

Article: “Animals and Adaptation” Learning Haven

A.      Behavioral adaptation- a behavior that helps an organism survive in it’s environment

a.       Migration- the movement of a species from place A to place B and then back to place A. This is normal due to weather or predators.

b.      Hibernation- eating a lot in Fall, storing fats, sleeping through the winter, waking in spring. In result to survive winter

c.       Community size- how large the organisms group must be

                                                               i.      Sharks swim alone

                                                             ii.      Penguins have a large group to survive winter storms

B.      Structural adaptation- physical adaptation to survive environment

a.       Fur- arctic fox has fur to survive cold

b.      Limbs- sea turtle has oar like fins to help swim and dig nests

C.      Extinction- when an animal doesn’t have adaptations to survive their changing environment and dies out

Article: “Darwin’s Theory” Prentice Hall

I.                    Darwin- the inventor of natural selection

a.       Theory of natural selection: survival of the fittest

                                                               i.      Observations- observed birds and turtles and noticed that even the same animals had different variations, species, to adapt to habitat

                                                             ii.      Natural selection- the strong pass their traits and the weak do not

                                                            iii.      Evolution- the theory that a series of natural selection and adaptations will make new species that are better suited to their environment

b.      Galapagos research

                                                               i.      Comparisons

1.       To south American animals- were distinctly different because of different continents

2.       To other species on the islands- small variations creating new species

                                                             ii.      Adaptations- natural selection that helps animals survive in their habitat.