Science Lesson: Extreme Evolution
Lesson Plan
1 hour 55 minutesGrades3, 4, 5Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts
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Written by Alice Severson
About this lesson
In this lesson, students follow the Silver Key Anole Lizard’s adaptation to changes in its habitat due to climate change. They complete an experiment and write and revise a claim using evidence.
Inquire: Students share background knowledge and ask questions about the lesson topic.
Investigate: Students learn about extreme evolution through a video and an experiment.
Inspire: Students connect their learning to a local organism and make a personal pledge for action.
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Everything you need to teach it
How to edit these materials (video)Teaching tips
Suggestions
- This lesson can be taught during a unit on heredity and variance of traits or weather and climate.
- This lesson provides hope to students who are experiencing a sense of hopelessness about the fate of our planet and the organisms that inhabit it. It is a lesson about survival.
- This lesson can be taught over several days. Day 1: Inquire, Investigate Part 1 (video clips 1-3); Day 2: Investigate Part 2, Inspire.
- Teachers can incorporate math skills by asking students to measure the tape to fasten the lizards onto the island and/or drawing a chart or graph of the results.
- Students can share their experiences with reptiles and serve as experts on these animals for the class.
Prerequisites
- Teachers should preview all video clips and the accompanying Teacher Document prior to teaching the lesson.
- Teachers should prepare all materials before the lesson:
- Acquire a tabletop fan.
- Print lizard outlines and cut tape before class.
- Print several copies of the Anchor Charts if needed. Post the 8.5 x 11 paper in the center of the chart paper for students to place sticky notes and respond to one another in the Gallery Walk.
- Teachers should try the experiment before leading it in class. You may have to adjust the height of the table or fan, or try different types of tape and paper to ensure that some of the lizards are affected by the fan.
Students should have a basic understanding of climate change. This guide can provide background knowledge.
Differentiation
- Students who would like to learn more about extreme evolution due to extreme weather events can research their own animals and try to determine what climate events have affected their evolution.
- Each step in the strategy “Stronger and Clearer” can be modeled by the teacher.
- For a challenge, students can research what makes a structure able to withstand a hurricane.
- If possible, emerging multilinguals should be paired with same language peers, as well as native English speakers, when navigating sense-making.
From the scientist review
This lesson enables students to investigate how living things adapt in their habitat as a result of environmental change and to learn about the relationship between evolution and climate change. Using the Anole lizard, students conduct experiments, track morphological changes, and present their results to determine the significant influence of climate change on species' evolution. This lesson is recommended for teaching.
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About the teacher writer
Alice Severson
Alice Severson (she/her) has been an elementary teacher in Madison Wisconsin for 20 years. She has co- written climate and equity lessons for the (OECD) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, CREATE for STEM, and spearheaded a project to collaborate with teachers to add the the equity framework from Cultivating Genius to school adopted curriculum. She enjoys taking long walks with her dogs.
