Date: 9/17/14

Stage 1 Identify Desired Results

Established Goals:
3.4 The student will investigate and understand that adaptations allow animals to satisfy
life needs and respond to the environment. Key concepts include
a) behavioral adaptations; and
b) physical adaptations.

What essential questions will be considered?

1. How can we confirm that adaptations are important? (explanation)
2. What do adaptations reveal about nature? (interpretation)
3. What are the strengths or weaknesses of animals having adaptations?
(perspective)
Solid EQs!

What understandings are desired?

Students will understand thateach EU is aligned to its EQ. Nice thinking,
Katie!
1. If students can answer my of how we can confirm that adaptations are important, then
they will understand that adaptations are crucial for a species survival in their habitat.
Without both physical and behavioral adaptations some animals would have already
become extinct.
2. If students can answer my question about what adaptations reveal about nature then they
will understand that different species have various characteristics, behavioral or physical
that allow them to better survive in their environment. Adaptations occur in nature in
order for a variety of animals or species to meet the needs of survival.
3. If students can answer my question about the strengths and weaknesses of adaptations
then, they understand that there are cause and effect relationships in nature. Also that
positive adaptation changes for one species may then have negative consequences for
another species.

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Date: 9/17/14

What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?
You made strong revisions that show you definitely understand the concept of designing desired
results (Stage1).
Students will know
Students will be able to
For your unit, what are the
For your unit, what thinking
specific facts, ideas, vocab, etc.?
behaviors will your students do?
(Think thinking skills, not activities.)

Behavioral adaptations are traits that are

passed down through animals that improve
the animals ability to survive in a certain
environment and respond to live needs.
Physical adaptations are a type of structural
modification made to a part of the body to

better able animals to survive in their

environments.
Camouflage is the means by which animals
escape notice from a predator, usually because
of the resemblance of their surroundings using
coloration or outer coverage patterns.
Mimicry is when one animal copies the
appearance, actions, scents, or sounds of

another animal. Happens in both animal and

plant species.
Hibernation is when animals go into a deep
sleep in which their body activities slow down
due to seasonal changes and they live off stored
food.
Habitat is the natural home or environment of
an animal, plant, or other organism.
Migration is the long distance journey from one

place to another that animals take in search of a

new temporary habitat because of climate, food
availability, season of the year, or reproduction.
Dormancy is a state of reduced metabolic
activity adopted by many organisms (plants and
animals) under conditions of environmental
stress.
Instinctive behavior is a pattern of behavior that
is a characteristic of a species and is often a
specific response to an environmental stimuli
or motivation.
Learned behaviors are behaviors that are
needed to be taught in order for the animal to

Distinguish between physical and

behavioral adaptations of animals.
Justify how an animals behavioral
adaptations help it live in its specific
habitat. (EQ 2)
Describe how animals are adapted to a certain
environment based on their physical
characteristics. This is an activity.
Compare and contrast instinct and learned
behavior.
Give examples of methods animals use to
gather and store food, find shelter, defend
themselves, and rear young.
Explain terms camouflage, mimicry,
hibernation, migration, dormancy, instinct, and
learned behavior.
Analyze the positives and negatives of
adaptations to draw conclusions or form an
opinion or make a decision. Analyze is
simply breaking something down; we do that
for some purpose see above thinking skills.
(EQ 3)
Justify the importance of animals having
adaptations. (EQ 1)
Investigate how adaptations affect food chains
in a habitat. This is an activity. Also, you need
to have content in the know section if children
are going to be able to do this. Which food
chains will you teach and what specifics about
them will you teach?
What higher order thinking will children do
when they answer your EQs?

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Date: 9/17/14

survive.
Examples of behavioral adaptations are
hibernation, migration, dormancy, instinct, and
learned behavior.
Examples of physical adaptations are
camouflage and mimicry.
Animals that hibernate include bears,
groundhogs, bats, and raccoons. Check the
accuracy of this one. What will you teach
about how this helps survival? Even though
bears do not lower body temperatures during
hibernation they still slow their metabolic rate
up to 75%. Helps animals survive when food is
scarce in the winter because they have food
stored. Hibernation keeps animals away from
predators during the long cold winter months.
Resources that other 570 students doing this
have discovered that bears go into dormancy
which is different from hibernation. Im not
the expert so you decide which is more
accurate. Someone told me that squirrels are a
great example of hibernation. Again, Im not
an expert.
Animals that migrate geese, monarch
butterflies, whales, salmon, ducks, sharks,
swans. What will you teach about how this
helps survival? Migrating allows for animals to
travel to warmer locations in order to help them
survive during the winter. Animals that migrate
would have a difficult time surviving in their
original habitats because of the cold
temperatures. Just a question: will you explore
how far certain animals migrate?
Examples of instincts include spiders spinning
webs, beaver building a dam, imprinting of
birds, and turtles that hatch go toward the
ocean. What specifics will you teach about how
these instincts help survival? Without instincts
animals would not know how to survive in their
specific habitats. The spider and beaver would
not know how to protect themselves from
predators without their instincts. Both birds and
turtles would not survive and would eventually
become extinct without their specific instincts.
You say that instincts are often associated with
Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Date: 9/17/14

a specific response to an environmental

stimuli or motivation. What environmental
stimuli will you teach? Environmental stimuli
that I would teach would be when an animal
feels threatened. Beavers and spiders have
instincts to protect them from predators
because they feel threatened. A turtles
surroundings is the environmental stimulus that
makes them travel to the ocean to ensure
survival. Birds experience the same
environmental stimuli too.
Makes good sense!
Examples of learned behaviors include bear
cub learning to hunt, humans learning to talk or
walk. Only these two? Any animals finding
food, monkeys swinging from trees, tigers
climbing, squirrels climbing up trees and
gathering nuts, otters learn to swim. Just a
suggestion use examples that children may
have experience with in this area if possible
may be more applicable to instincts and
animals they experience. Just thinking on
paper.
Examples of camouflage include chameleons,
toads, geckos, and stick insect. What specifics
will you teach about each camouflage? Are
there examples that are relevant to the
childrens lives that you could use?
Camouflage protects animals from their
predators and keeps them out of sight and safe.
Camouflage is seen in clothing. People in the
Army wear camouflage in order to make it
harder for the enemies to find them. What I
meant by this comment was specific to their
camo it changes based on what the animal is
on. Good use of the Army example. You could
even show how the uniforms reflect the
woods/jungles vs. the desert environments.
Examples of mimicry include viceroy and
monarch butterfly. Both butterflies appear the
same, but monarchs are poisonous to animals
that eat them.
In order to survive in their habitats animals act
in different ways to store food, find shelter,
defend themselves, and rear their young.
Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Date: 9/17/14

Animals store food in burrows (chipmunks,

gophers), hollows (birds), and body fat bears
skunks (hibernation)- . Specifics for each type?
Animals defend themselves through mimicry
and camouflage. Are these the only two
defensive acts youll teach? Some animals are
poisonous, which is their form of defense, such
as snacks, spiders, frogs, and caterpillars. Other
animals have odors that protect them from
other animals, for example a skunk and an
opossum. Finally animals that sting also use
that as a defense, examples include, bees,
wasps, jellyfish, and hornets.
Examples of animal rearing methods
marsupials carrying their young in their pouch,
imprinting what is this and which animals do
this. Are you going to teach how these rearing
methods help survival?
Imprinting is when a young animal recognizes
another animal as a parent. Both of these
rearing methods allow newborn animals a
better chance of survival because they have
someone who will protect them. In the wild
mothers are very protective over their young.
One example, children in this area might know
is how when a doe and her fawn are threatened,
the doe stamps her foot to draw attention to her
and then they run in different directions. Could
also bring in mother bears and their young.

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.