Sensational Science

We finish our year of Science studying LIFE SCIENCE!!! In our final unit, we will focus on both plants and animals. We will find the ADAPTATIONS that plants and animals have to survive in their environment, explore BIOMES of our Earth for their common living organisms, and study how energy is transferred from one living organism to another through FOOD CHAINS and FOOD WEBS.

First we will explore plant adaptations, especially how leaves are adapted to its environment. Look for visual differences of plant leaves here: http://www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/adapt.html

Students are generally the most excited to observe the LIFE CYCLE of a butterfly! Each student will share responsibility in raising a butterfly larva to its adult stage. During the larva stage, they will view their animal eating and growing more 30x its original size! Then their larva will form its CHRYSALIS to protect itself as it goes through METAMORPHOSIS. During this stage, we will need to use extreme caution to not injure our fragile animal, as it is a PUPA. Finally, the animal will emerge from its chrysalis as an adult butterfly! After viewing its new method to obtain food and change locations, we will release the ADULT into the wild.

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WEBSITES FOR THE CURRENT UNIT:

ANIMAL ADAPTATION SITES:

Here are some great websites to further your scientific explorations!

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/20449-the-world-of-plants-plant-adaptations-video.htm

Watch this video on plant adaptations. Be amazed at all the different ways plants are adapted to survive in their environment!

http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/graphics/butterfly-life-cycle-l.gif

A butterfly life cycle to color at home!

http://www.kidsbutterfly.org/

Loads of information, activities, & fun with butterflies!

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/a-list/creature-countdowns/adaptations/adaptations.html

The Top 10 Animal Adaptations!!!

http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/climate/adaptations/index.cfm

A game to test your animal adaptation knowledge.

http://kids.yahoo.com/animals

Find your favorite animal here! Research its special adaptations!

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature

Another wonderful website for researching your favorite animal!

http://www.mbgnet.net/

Find your biome here!!!

http://www.vtaide.com/png/foodchains.htm

Learn more about food webs then scroll down to create your own web using clip art from this site.

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/B/Biomes.html#Tundra

Climate information for each biome!

http://plantphys.info/plant_biology/climate.shtml

A quick view of the climates for each biome.

http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/biometundra.htm

Tundra biome

https://biomesfirst.wikispaces.com/file/view/Food_Web.JPG/32445841/Food_Web.JPG

An example of a tundra food web.

http://www.nhptv.org/NATUREWORKS/nwep8b.htm

Taiga biome

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vtaide.com/png/foodweb/coniferous-sm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vtaide.com/png/taiga.htm&h=480&w=634&sz=33&tbnid=8qICe854ZC9bjM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtaiga%2Bbiome%2Bfood%2Bweb&usg=__fJDfRI4aX3LnxbaCB3KctcPzuL4=&ei=8D_nS_-RDZKkNaXChYUI&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CCUQ9QEwAw

An example of taiga food web.

http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webunits/biomes/grass.html

Grassland biome

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://image.tutorvista.com/content/ecosystem/food-web-grassland-ecosystem.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.tutorvista.com/topic/terrestrial-grassland-biome&h=303&w=424&sz=22&tbnid=sYy0oBvUiluVoM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgrasslands%2Bbiome%2Bfood%2Bweb&usg=__o33wIjKW-q553iTcF5grNXdG254=&ei=REDnS5OIF5K4NoXJ4IUI&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&ved=0CCEQ9QEwAA

An example of grasslands food web.

http://ths.sps.lane.edu/biomes/deciduous3/deciduous3.html

Deciduous forest biome

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.world-builders.org/lessons/less/biomes/deciduous/decfor/dec-chain.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.world-builders.org/lessons/less/biomes/deciduous/decweb.html&h=685&w=576&sz=46&tbnid=or2Phj71f9JtHM:&tbnh=245&tbnw=206&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddeciduous%2Bforest%2Bfood%2Bweb&usg=__c9JUMIDbedv3gC5GEYjt2JScBP4=&ei=8UDnS5XKHoH-Nbus4KsM&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image&ved=0CBoQ9QEwAQ

An example of deciduous forest food web.

http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0167-desert.php

Desert biome

http://www.vtaide.com/png/desertBiomes.htm

An example of a desert biome food web.

http://www.thewildclassroom.com/biomes/rainforest.html

Rain forest biome

http://biomesfirst.wikispaces.com/Tropical+Rainforest+Food+Web

An example of rain forest food web.