Animal Adaptations and Life Cycles Inquiry Susan Swenson, Media Specialist and Erica Gilliatt, Third Grade

Why Inquiry? Student-led discovery of information Teaches questioning, information gathering and note taking skills

Why animals? Essential Questions: What are adaptations? What steps are in a life cycle? How are animal groups alike and different? How do adaptations impact survival? Skills learned through the process: Wait and see!

Step 1: Building Background January 4-15 Common Vocabulary Life Cycle Adaptation Animal Behaviors Observations KWL Chart Distance Learning – Indianapolis Zoo

Step 2: Choose a topic January Students are introduced to resources available for information gathering. Working from a list of animals available at the zoo, students choose three they are interested in learning more about.

Step 3: Locate and Gather Information February 1-9 Study trip to the Indianapolis Zoo for field notes and photography Resources: Destiny, Inspire, Computer Lab (Internet), SIRS, Grolier and Worldbook Online Citing Sources Students gather sources about their specific animal.

Step 4: Read Resources, Refine Questions February Students form questions about their animal that they want to investigate, working on creating narrow, manageable topics. Students learn strategies for reading nonfiction text. Students read and highlight materials they have already collected.

Steps 5-6: Organize and Categorize, Answer and Apply February Students use note taking strategies to record information from their resources. Post-it notes Webs Note taking folder Students use Kidspiration to diagram their animal’s life cycle.

Step 7: Produce and Present March 1-19 Students collaborate with peers who have been studying the same animal to compose narration for a Photostory video. Students create a story board to plan their video. Students create a bibliography (using Noodletools) to identify sources. Final products are shared with families here at Gallery Night!!!

Step 8: Reflect and Evaluate Ongoing, March Students reflect weekly on their progress and the inquiry process. At the end of the process, students evaluate their performance and identify new questions and things they might have done differently. Students are assessed by the teachers using an ICAN rubric.