GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Unit Title: S4L2
Time Frame:
Subject/Topic: Survival/Extinction of Organisms
Grades: 4
Designers: Huddleston/Kedron
Stage 1 ---Desired Results
Relevant Standards and Elements:
S4L2 Students will identify factors that affect the survival or extinction of organisms such as adaptation, variation of
behaviors (hibernation) and external features (camouflage and protection).
a. Identify external features of organisms that do not have these features (e.g. camouflage, use of
hibernation, protection, etc.)
b. Identify factors that may have led to the extinction of some organisms
Enduring Understandings:
Students will understand that factors affect the survival or extinction of organisms
Students will understand that individuals of the same kind differ in their characteristics, and sometimes the differences
give individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing
Essential Questions:
How do an organism’s behavior, features, and adaptation affect its survival?
Students will know…
 Organisms use camouflage for protection
 Organisms hibernate for survival
 Organisms have external features they use for
protection
 A variety of factors lead to adaptation and extinction
Students will be able to…
 Explain the relationship between camouflage and
protection
 Describe how an organism must adapt to survive
 Explain how hibernation is beneficial to survival
 Define: survival, extinction, adaptation, hibernation,
camouflage
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Stage 2---Assessment Evidence (Selected Response, Constructed Response,
Performance and Informal)
Formative (quizzes, test, prompts, observations, dialogues, work samples, etc.)
Organism Adaptation Mobiles
Students will create mobiles showing adaptations that plants and
animals possess. Each side of the mobile will represent a different
adaptation. Guide students:
1. Using a box, poke two holes in the closed end of the box and
thread with yarn.
2. Cover each side of the box with construction paper to display
one adaptation.
3. Illustrate each side to show the animal's and plant’s
adaptation. The box should include the following:
camouflage, mimicry, hibernation and protection.
4. Attach the note card describing each adaptation.
5. Invite students to present their mobiles to the class, then take
them home to share with their families.
Ecosystems and Adaptations United Steaming video – After video, students will simulate or design a
beak that is best for one kind of food source. See Harcourt textbook A section for more information
on beak adaptations.
Summative:
Students will debate whether or not bears actually hibernate. Students will need to convince the judges of their
point about this topic by sharing at least 3 reasons why they feel bears hibernate or bears do not hibernate.
(Informal oral communication performance assessment)
Students will compare and contrast natural/environmental factors leading to extinction with human factors.
Students will use a graphic organizer (A Venn Diagram) to compare and contrast these factors leading to
extinction.
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Stage 3---Learning Plan (Direct Instruction, Experiential Learning, Independent Learning,
Indirect Instruction, Interactive Instruction)
Learning Strategies/Tasks/Experiences:
GRASP Activity
 Goal:
Your task is to research your community and find an environmental problem
 Role:
You are an agent with the E.P.A.
 Audience:
You need to convince other people in the community that there is an environmental problem that is dealing with an
animal which is endangered
 Situation:
The challenge involves working with others in the community and convincing them to help solve the problem
 Product, Performance, and Purpose:
You need to research your community and find an environmental problem. Then you will have to find solutions to the
problem and enlist the public’s help in order to solve the problem
 Standards and Criteria for Success:
Your performance needs to include research about an environmental problem, research including harmful effects to
the environment as well as possible solutions to the problem. Your work will be judged by classmates.
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Learning Strategies/Tasks/Experiences:
When Food Freezes
When winter's cold temperatures and ice arrive, food becomes scarce for animals in the wild.
Reinforce this concept with students through this easy classroom experiment. In advance, fill several
ice trays with water and drop a small pineapple chunk into each section. Allow the water to freeze.
Then pop out the cubes and give one to each child. Ask students to smell their ice cubes. Can they
smell the pineapple? Challenge them to eat the pineapple chunks out of their ice cubes. How difficult
is this task? Use this activity to discuss how wintry conditions make it hard for animals to find and get
to food. Then explain that, because of the low food supply in winter, hibernating animals eat all
summer and fall to fatten their bodies. The stored fat provides fuel to help the animals survive during
their winter hibernation, which can last as long as six or seven months.
Classroom Hibernation
During your unit, reserve some class time for students to "slow down" and take a short winter's rest.
Appoint a special day and encourage students to bring in pillows, slippers, snack crackers, juice
boxes, and favorite books, puzzles, or quiet games. Stock your class library with books about animals
that hibernate, as well as other topics of interest to children. Then allow students to find a quiet
private area in the room to "nest" during their hibernation. They can line their nests with snacks,
personal items, and books from the class shelves. As they snuggle down, invite children to quietly
engage in individual activities or to just put their heads down for a peaceful winter nap.
Conserving Energy
Hibernation not only eliminates the need for winter food-gathering, but also lets an animal conserve
its body energy by slowing down its heart rate and breathing. To help illustrate this, set a timer during
a rest period and have students take their pulses during a one-minute interval. Ask them to write
down the results along with descriptions of their breathing during this time. Then in an open area,
have them perform vigorous exercises such as jumping, running, and hopping for several minutes.
Afterward, have them sit and take their pulses again. How do the results differ? How does their
breathing compare? Does rest or activity require more energy?
Temperature Experiment
While the average body temperature for a mammal is 99ºF, a hibernating animal's temperature drops
to around 43ºF. This is less than half the normal temperature and only 11 degrees above freezing!
The lower temperature reduces the amount of energy an animal must use to keep warm. To
demonstrate, half-fill a plastic shoe box with warm water and have students measure the temperature
using a thermometer. Have them stir in one ice cube at a time and take a temperature reading after
each addition, until the water reaches 43ºF. Then invite children to place their hands in the water to
experience the body temperature of a hibernating animal. Do they think they could sleep comfortably
at this temperature?
A Place to Rest Mural
In the weeks before hibernation or dormancy, animals prepare their
winter beds. Where do they sleep during this time? To help students
find out, ask them to brainstorm a list of hibernating animals, then
select and research an animal from the list. (See Hibernation
Resources.) Instruct them to write on note cards how their animals
prepare their hibernation homes. Do they build nests? Line them with
food? Dig burrows? As students complete their research, invite them
to create a winter mural by drawing their animals in their hibernation homes on bulletin board paper.
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Students then can add mounds of snow, icicles, and other winter scenery. After each student has had
a chance to share his or her fact card with the class, attach it to the mural near the appropriate
animal.
Making My Nest
People don't actually hibernate, but many reduce their activity and spend more time indoors during
the short winter days. Invite children to imagine that they do hibernate. What kinds of supplies will
they store up for a long winter's rest? What will they line their nests with? What will they keep on hand
for wakeful times when it's too cold to go outdoors? Provide students with paper plates, fabric or
paper strips, store catalogs, sales flyers, and magazines. Then ask them to create personal winter
nests by gluing the strips inside the plate and adding pictures of selected items to line their nests.
During a sharing time, invite children to tell the class about their nests and why they chose some of
the items in them.
Hibernation Clocks
How do animals know when it's time to end their winter's hibernation? Scientists believe that animals
may have internal clocks that arouse them when the weather becomes warmer. Invite children to
solve simple word problems with a unique hibernation calendar-clock. To prepare, label each of 12
note cards with a different month. Attach January next to the 1 on a large class clock. Then attach
February next to 2, and so on, until each clock number is represented by a month. Begin by pointing
the minute hand to 12, then move the hour hand from one number to the next. Each time, ask
students to name the hour and the corresponding month. When they have a clear understanding of
how each clock number corresponds to a month of the year, present the word problems below. Let
students use the classroom hibernation clock to solve them individually, then review and discuss their
answers as a class.
1. January is at 1:00. At which number on the hibernation clock is November? (11:00)
2. Bear slept from 9:00 to 3:00 on the clock. During which months did Bear sleep? (September,
October, November, December, January, February, March)
3. Squirrel gathered food from 6:00 to 10:00. Name the months that Squirrel spent preparing for
winter. (June, July, August, September, October)
4. Groundhog slept from November to February. At what time on the hibernation clock did
Groundhog wake up? (2:00)
5. Bat went into a cave to hibernate at 10:00 and woke up at 4:00. How many months did Bat
hibernate? (six months)
6. Raccoon slept from 10:00 to 1:00. Then Raccoon slept from 2:00 to 5:00. How many total
months did Raccoon hibernate? (six months)
Extinction
Illustrate the history of the decline of a species through a collage or computer design. Make a
pictorial timeline showing the factors that affected the species' population (for example, commercial
hunting, the ivory trade, and habitat loss for elephants), either by hand or with your computer. Draw or
find images in magazines or on the Internet, scan pictures from books and magazines into a
document, or use mixed media, such as objects, torn paper, or fabric pieces. Place the objects or
pictures on your timeline to portray the factors leading to the species' decline. Portray changes in the
species' population over time by using pictorial images or mixed media.
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Camouflage
Students can play camouflage game. http://www.eoascientific.com
Adaptations
Animal Adaptations scavenger hunt that is to be completed in the computer lab.
M &M Survival Challenge:
Introduction
Nature can be brutal. The harsh reality is that if you are not a hunter, then you are being hunted. What do
animals do to keep from being eaten? Some animals develop defense mechanisms, like porcupine quills or the
plated armor of an armadillo. Other animals develop yucky tastes on their bodies, or poisonous mucus coatings.
This pattern of animals developing strategies to survive is called adaptation, and it is a mechanism for
evolution. You may have heard the famous phrase, "survival of the fittest," that Charles Darwin used to describe
this natural phenomenon. In order to survive in nature, you need to be fit, and fitting in to your environment is
very important to avoid being eaten!
The most common way that animals can avoid being eaten by a predator is by an adaptation called camouflage.
Camouflage is a set of colorings or markings on an animal that help it to blend in with the surroundings and
increase its chance for survival. The surrounding environment that the animal hides in is called the habitat, or
the place where the animal lives.
Each animal needs to adapt to a unique habitat, and animals adapt in all kinds of different and interesting ways.
Katydids, which live in green leafy trees, have adapted to their habitat by having a bright green body shaped
like a leaf. Chameleons, which change habitats often in the colorful jungle, have adapted a way of changing
their skin color to match their immediate environment. Decorator crabs have adapted by learning how to cover
their shells with debris to blend in with their habitat.
Here is a game you can play with your friends to learn about adaptation. Get a box and fill it with clothes for
different kinds of weather: a sun hat and sun glasses, rain coat and umbrella, winter coat and hat, sweater, etc...
Have one person announce a habitat (like the rainforest) and race to see who can find and put on the proper
outfit (like the raincoat and boots) to adapt to that habitat. Who is the fastest? How do your made-up adaptations
compare to natural adaptations that wild animals use in their natural habitats?
In this experiment, you will test how adaptation and survival work by using M&M candies as your prey. You
will hunt for the M&M's in different colored "habitats" to test whether some M&M's do better in some habitats
than others. Then you can discover which M&M's are best suited to survive in each habitat.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:


predator
prey
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN





habitat
environment
survival
adaptation
camouflage
Related how-to info: Background Research Plan & Bibliography
Review of Literature
Variables & Hypothesis
Bibliography



Armstrong, Wayne. "Wayne's Word: Photos of Ecological Adaptations." Wayne's Word, Escondido,
CA. [12/28/05]
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/lmexe10b.htm
Staff. 2005. "Darwin for Kids and Families." American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY.
[12/28/05]
http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/exhibitions/darwin/families/
Staff. 2005. "What's it Like Where You Live? Biomes of the World." Missouri Botanical Garden. St.
Louis, MO. [12/28/05]
http://mbgnet.mobot.org/
Materials and Equipment





colored construction paper
plastic baggies
one large package of M&M candies
stopwatch
some friends who like to eat M&M's
Experimental Procedure
1. First you will need to prepare 6 groups of "prey" by counting and placing equal numbers of M&M
candies into separate plastic baggies.
2. In each baggie, place 10 M&M's of each color into the baggie: 10 brown, 10 red, 10 yellow, 10 green,
and 10 orange. There should be a total of 50 M&M's in each baggie.
3. Prepare different "habitats", 6 large pieces of construction paper in a series of different colors: white,
blue, red, yellow, green, or brown. If you have small sheets of construction paper, you may want to tape
together 4 sheets of paper to make one large piece for each color.
4. Gather together a pack of 2-4 predators. This can be anybody who likes to eat M&M's as much as you
do: a friend, brother, sister, mom, dad, grandparent, etc.
5. Explain to your predators the rules of the game:
"First, we will pour one of our bags of M&M's on a colored sheet of paper. Then I will set the timer for
10 seconds. When I say go, I will start the timer and we will pick up and eat the M&M's until the timer
beeps. Then we will stop eating. I will count the number of M&M's of each color that are left. Then we
will do it again for the rest of the colors of paper."
6. Put the first habitat down in the middle of your group of predators. Make sure everyone can reach the
paper.
7. Pour one of your bags of M&M's out onto the paper. Make sure that all of the M&M's are on the paper.
8. Set your timer for 10 seconds.
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
9. Say, "GO!" and start the timer. When the timer beeps, everyone should stop eating M&M's.
10. Count the M&M's that are left on the paper and record the colors left in a data table like the one shown
below:
Red
M&M's
Habitat
Starting
Number
10
Brown
M&M's
10
Green
M&M's
10
Yellow
M&M's
10
Orange
M&M's
10
White Paper
Yellow Paper
Red Paper
Green Paper
Blue Paper
11. Repeat for all of the other colors of construction paper "habitats."
12. Look at your data. Do you notice any interesting patterns between the color of the paper and the color of
the M&M's that are eaten? What is different about the white "habitat" than the other colored habitats?
How do you think this same survival strategy would work in the wild?
Related how-to info: Materials List & Procedure
Conduct Experiment
Data Analysis & Graph
Conclusions
Display Board
Variations


In the wild, adaptation and evolution happen over several generations because only the fittest survive to
make new offspring. There is a way to test this phenomenon with the M&M experiment. Pick one
habitat and randomly toss a package of M&M's on it. After a round of predation, add one M&M of equal
color to each M&M that is left, then repeat another round of predation. How many rounds does it take to
get all the same colored M&M's?
Different animals have adapted to different environments and habitats. Take a trip to your local zoo and
bring a notebook. Write down and draw pictures of any special adaptations you observe. Do animals in
the zoo use camouflage? Do the zoo keepers do a good job of creating natural habitats? How do you
think that the adaptations of zoo animals work in the wild? Do some kinds of animals have more
adaptations than others?
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Stage 4 – Resources
Leveled Books, trade books, big books, read-alouds, websites, textbooks, videos, student materials, teacher
resources, etc.
www.unitedstreaming.com
There are several informative short video segments that explain adaptations, camouflage, and hibernation on the
unitedstreaming website.
Animal Adaptations: 23 minutes
Animal Instincts: 7 minutes
Ocean’s Alive: 5 minutes
Ecosystems and Adaptations: 30 minutes – refer to activity in learning plan
Background Information on Hibernation
Background Information on Hibernation
Some animals hibernate over the winter, going into a very deep sleep. Hibernating animals usually
retreat to a den, a burrow, or a hollow log for protection and shelter. During "true hibernation," the
animal's body temperature drops, and its rate of breathing slows down. These hibernating animals
are very difficult to awaken.
Most animals will eat large amounts of food before hibernating, adding body fat that will nourish them
during the winter. Occasionally, hibernating animals will awaken periodically during the winter to eat.
When most hibernating animals awaken in the spring, they are very hungry.
Some of the animals listed below are not "true hibernators," but they do become dormant over winter
or go into diapause (a suspended state that some insects enter during cold, short days). For example,
during cold winter months, some bears go into a dormant state in which their heart rate is extremely
low, their body temperature is relatively high, they neither eat nor release bodily waste, and they can
be roused (unlike "true hibernators"). In older scientific literature, hibernation used to refer only to lowbody-temperature winter dormancy, but now that much more is known about this dormancy phase,
some bears (like the black bear) are considered to be extremely efficient hibernators (some biologists
refer to these animals as "super hibernators").



We have included bears in two sections: hibernation and torpor. This was the first time that
we ever did research and found out that different books might have different information that
doesn't agree about the same subject. Most books say that bears are not "true" hibernators.
This is because they:
Have times through the winter when they wake up and walk around.
Don't have a big lowering of body temperature.
Bears do sleep a lot of the winter but their body temperatures don't drop very much. This is how the
female can take care of her cubs that are born during winter. True hibernators take a long time to
wake up from their winter sleep but bears are alert and know what is going on around them. They
can get up right away.
In the fall, bears start to look for a winter den. This den will be safe and somewhere that the bear
doesn't go at other times of the year. Bears like to make their dens in caves, hollow trees, banks of
creeks or even big pipes. Brown bears always dig holes for dens. Sometimes they even dig tunnels
to the den.
When they make their den, they drag in leaves and tree branches for a bed. The den will be big
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
enough for the bear to move around and stretch but small enough that the bear's body heat warms it.
When it begins to snow, they crawl inside to sleep. The snow will lay over the den and help to hold
the bear's body heat inside.
During hibernation, a bear's eyes will be open when it is awake but it might be groggy. Its body
gets a little cooler but not as cold as other hibernating animals. Since it mostly sleeps and lays
around, the body fat that it stored in the summer and fall lasts longer. It doesn't take too much body
fuel to sleep. Its body does lots of things while it is in hibernation. It makes its own water and
recycles wastes. Bears won't drink or get rid of wastes for a few months. They will lose about eight
pounds a week during hibernation or torpor. The weight they lose will be from stored fat and not
muscle. This means that when they leave the den in the spring, they are still strong. In Spring, they
will wake up and leave the den. They will be thinner and very hungry.
Here's something interesting. Bears don't get rid of wastes--or go to the bathroom--for a few
months. The urine is broken down inside their bodies and reused as protein to help the bear keep its
muscles healthy. A 'plug' of feces, hair, and nest stuff forms at the end of the bear's digestive tract.
This comes out when the bear leaves the den and goes to the bathroom. Disgusting, but interesting.
Polar bears can go into hibernation at any time of the year. They will do it if they can't find food.
This allows them to adapt to having no food. Most polar bears don't hibernate but some pregnant
females will. They make their dens in the fall, give birth during the winter, and stay there until spring.
The temperature inside the den can get 40 degrees hotter than the air outside just because of the
bear's body heat.
Bears aren't like birds that migrate, or move away from bad weather. They won't leave their area
to find a warmer place. They adapt to the climate around them by sleeping through the cold
season. Scientists disagree on whether bears hibernate, but all think they do go into a torpor.
Torpor is a sleep where the animal is a little alert but kind of drowsy or sluggish.
Background Information on Factors Leading to extinction
1. Natural/environmental factors: climate change, extreme geological activity, huge
meteors colliding with the Earth
Human factors: pollution, cutting/logging, expansion/per capita resource consumption,
hunting
Website with information on extinction:
http://www.bagheera.com/inthewild/extinct.htm
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Plants
Factors leading to extinction
Fires
Trails, which open and dry out the forest
Trampling by visitors
Fragmentation of nearby habitat. Roads and other development may have prevented
pollination or the dispersal of seeds by invertebrates.
Weeds. The rapid growth of 64 exotic plant species crowded out native species.
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
Fourth Grade-Factors that Affect Survival or Extinction
ELA4W2 The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.
The student produces informational writing that: report - procedures _correspondence
Exceeds
Meets
Does Not Meet
Points
Teacher Commentary
a. Captivates the reader by
establishing a clear
context, creating a definite
speaker's voice and
developing reader
a. Engages the reader by
establishing a context,
creating a speaker's voice,
& otherwise developing
reader interest.
a. Lacks a clear content &
Focus and does not engage
the reader.
b. Develops a central
question about an issue or
situation.
b. Fails to develop a
central question about an
issue or situation.
c. Creates an organizing
structure appropriate to a
specific purpose, audience,
and context.
c. Creates little or no
organizing structure.
d. Includes appropriate
facts and details.
d. Includes few or no facts
and details.
e. Excludes ALL
extraneous details &
e. Excludes extraneous
details & inappropriate
e. Includes extraneous
details & inconsistencies.
inconsistencies.
information.
f. Uses a wide range of
appropriate strategies such
as providing many facts &
details, fully describing or
analyzing the subject, &
narrating a relevant
anecdote.
g. Draws from multiple
sources of information
such as speakers, books,
newspapers, & online
materials.
f. Uses a range of
appropriate strategies such
as providing facts &
details, describing or
analyzing the subject, &
narrating a relevant
anecdote.
g. Draws from more than
one source of information
such as speakers, books,
newspapers, & online
materials.
h. Provides a sense of
closure with a well
developed ending that
shows how the problem
h. Provides a sense of
closure to the writing.
h. Provides no sense of
closure.
i. ELA4W4 Consistently
uses a writing process to
develop, revise, and
i. Fails to utilize the steps
of the writing process to
create text.
involvement.
b. Extends and develops a
central question that
conveys a perspective on
an issue or situation.
c. Develops an exceptional
organizing structure
appropriate to a specific
purpose, audience, and
context.
d. Includes many
appropriate facts and
details.
f. Uses few strategies
when providing facts &
details, describing or
analyzing the subject, &
narrating a relevant
anecdote.
g. Draws from a single
source of information such
as speakers, books,
newspapers, & online
materials; or no sources
used.
worked out.
i. Independently plans,
drafts, revises, edits and
publishes writing.
evaluate writing.
j. Uses understanding and
control of the rules of the
English language to
achieve great clarity and
exceptional style.
Exceeds = 30
A = 24 – 30
j. ELA4Cl Demonstrates
some understanding &
control of the rules of the
English language with
minimal grammar and
usage errors.
Meets = 15 – 29
B = 20 – 23
j. Makes surface feature
Errors that interfere with
the writer's
communication with the
reader.
Does Not Meet = 10 -14
C = 15 – 19
D=14
F=10-13
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN
GPS SCIENCE UNIT PLAN