Students conduct fieldwork to observe and investigate squirrels and how they meet their needs in a particular environment. They compare how extant animals and plants meet their needs with what is known about prehistoric environments and the animals that lived there. They make, discuss, and revise models for how squirrels would or would not have survived in the Jurassic period and how they could adapt to survive in an imagined future environment 

• Environments, animals’ needs, structures, and survival, extinction and adaptations, Jurassic period 

This unit has a creativity and critical thinking focus:

• Reflect on and challenge assumptions about the natural environment and how it came to be the way it is.

• Create and model predictions about an animal’s structures related to meeting its needs for survival and compare with structures of prehistoric species to reflect on how some prehistoric species may have met their needs.

• Imagine past and future environments and how different animals and plants could survive these environments.

Web and Print

• Jurassic Period Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASxQKIUf6x8 

•  Squirrel Survival Readings  What do squirrels eat? (WeRead version)-https://drive.google.com/open?id=12wbiaJblCI-ur97H3aOSlgH7c54uTrAB6RRZun8kHk4 

• How do squirrels survive winter? (WeRead version)-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gmlHAIoRHeX3sK9GuAZw7o6vPus7XfteOO2aLJLCDW8 

•  How do squirrels change as they grow? (WeRead version)-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HcrRMvvWOCTW41h0hp_QAftMPiWC_cHRFuxCkDj7nU0 

• What eats squirrels, and how do squirrels protect themselves? (WeRead version)-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dtvIK3EKFFZOMyouek-gMV79q6KcJpMKo9jiJvucAIs 

•  Structure and Survival Function Chart -https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12_j-QQBd4LEzgu_AHKhkesDyw9e1TaRCp04sEpCTaTo/edit?usp=sharing 

• Jurassic Period Text and media-https://sprocket.lucasedresearch.org/course/science3/squirrels/task-5/lesson-4/my

            Other Resources 

• Binoculars, samples of fossils 

           Opportunities to adapt, extend, and enrich 

• This mini-unit is based on portions of the four learning sets in a sequence of six learning sets. The remaining learning sets have students examine local and prehistoric environments as systems in which parts work together. They sort and describe fossils and use texts to connect those fossils to prehistoric ecosystems and climates. They make models that show how fossils can provide scientists insights that can be used to understand how prehistoric animals met their needs in very different environments. 

• Remaining learning sets, along with additional STEM project-learning units and related resources can be found at https://sprocket.lucasedresearch.org/course/science3/squirrels

• and https://mlpbl.open3d.science/ML-PBL Units were co-developed by the Multiple Literacies in Project-based Learning Project at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan 2018–2020. ML-PBL units are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The work was funded by the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

English Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TOiXG15JsGtTuu6r9T2-fCdhOi_YHY_ESwAyE3tltos/edit?usp=sharing

Hindi Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U5ZjN482qbp53Xt8B-xB1ERnlfDQNK1UsoCTEUGoVSs/edit?usp=sharing

Gujarati Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gfaz_bxd_I3IDKRz1mSAveFWSiUhNNzek8hAQppkdOE/edit?usp=sharing

Kannada Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_BVvT4B74ACrBpxHk4qgaab4TmUz7YsJGx1YMwTYVKs/edit?usp=drive_link