This series can be done year
round.
Students are divided into groups of approximately ten.
The time frame for this series is 1 1/2 hours.
Students love this program. They
get to talk about bugs, and why insects are insects and then they
become the insect their group choses. They make distinguishing
characteristics of the insect they have chosen and the Docent leads
them through the activities highlighting behaviors of that insect as
they go through the greenhouses, are eaten by insectivorous plants,
and walk through the woods.
Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4
Activity
Students learn about the characteristics of insects, decide on what insect they want to learn about and then become that insect by constructing distinguishing characteristics and wearing them.
Materials Needed
construction paper crayons models markers
whole punchers tape scissors yarn
Procedure
1. Students divide into their groups under the pavilion.
2. Docents prompt students to discuss what makes an insect an insect (six legs, three body parts, etc.) and to name several insects.
3. Students are then asked to vote on what insect they want to become and decide what they need to become the insect. During this process Docents are encouraging students to think about different insects and characteristics, what makes a bee a bee and not a butterfly.
4. Docent helps students construct the characteristic(s).
5. Students are informed that they have become the insect and will spend the rest of the time at the Arboretum doing the activities as that insect.
Alabama Course of Study for Science
This activity meets goals specified for grades K--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 16, 17…1st--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 21, 24, 26…2nd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 23, 24, 25…3rd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 21, 32, 34…4th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 41, 43…5th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 30, 31
Learning Outcomes
Students are introduced to the idea that not all bugs are insects. They will understand how insects are different from other insects and learn about the specific insect they choose.
Instrumental Objectives
SWBAT identify and discuss some specific insects and insect anatomy in general. SWBAT distinguish and categorize insect characteristics. SWBAT make distinguishing characteristics of the chosen insect and learn and display behaviors of the insect.
Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4
Activity
Students are taken to the greenhouses and asked to explore them looking for a plant to adopt. The students have to explain why they have adopted that plant: food, water, camouflage, to protect, for protection, or to pollinate.
Materials Needed
Students Greenhouses
Procedure
1. Docent leads students to the greenhouses.
2. Docent explains activity and prompts students to think why a plant-insect relationship could be important.
3. Students are told they have to 1)have a good reason why they want to adopt that plant: food, protection, shelter, etc. and 2) tell 3 people why they chose that plant. One person has to be a teacher or Docent.
4. Students are told they have seven minutes to explore the greenhouses and choose a plant.
5. Students are then sent into the greenhouses to explore.
Alabama Course of Study for Science
This activity meets goals specified for grades K--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 19…1st--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27…2nd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 23, 25, 26…3rd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 32, 37…4th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 43, 46…5th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 30, 31, 39
Learning Outcomes
Students will look at plant-insect relationships from a different perspective, from the perspective of the insect they have become and understand better why plants could be important to them as an insect and as a human.
Instrumental Objectives
SWBAT identify and discuss why plants are important to insects. SWBAT distinguish at least three important relationships between plants and insects. SWBAT verbalize why a plant is important to them as a specific insect.
Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4
Activity
Students explore insectivorous plants and experience the reasons why an insect would be attracted to them. The students find they are attracted to the studentious insectivorous, the candy plant, for a firsthand experience of this fascinating relationship.
Materials Needed
insect eating plants studentious insectivorous hard candy chocolate candy magnifying glasses
Procedure
1. Docent takes students to the bog garden and prompts them to explore the different insect eating plants with magnifiers and identifies the different plants for the students.
2. Docent encourages students to think about why plants would want to eat insects: what do humans get from the food they eat, do they think plants need nutrients in their diets, have any of the students heard their parents saying they were going to fertilize the yard or garden, etc. building a connection of why a plant would adapt this survival mechanism.
3. As this investigation of connections takes place students are naturally drawn to the studentious insectivorous because it is covered in candy.
4. Docent tries to keep the students away from the pretend plant for as long as possible to enforce the concept of how insectivorous plants lure their prey.
5. The Docent then goes to investigate the studentious insectivorous and asks the students to help investigate, as the first student puts his/her hand down the fake plant the Docent curls the tentacles over the students and makes sounds of delicious feasting on the student that has fallen into the trap.
6. Students are told that they may have one piece of hard candy and one piece of chocolate candy and told to give the candy wrappers to a teacher or Docent.
Alabama Course of Study for Science
This activity meets goals specified for grades K--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21…1st--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27…2nd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26…3rd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 32, 37, 39…4th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 43, 46…5th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 30, 31, 39
Learning Outcomes
Students will make the connections of why plants would develop this type of adaptation to survive and how they are able to be successful.
Instrumental Objectives
SWBAT identify several insect eating plants native to Alabama and the south. SWBAT discuss why plants would develop this adaptation. SWBAT experience the trap adapted by these plants to survive.
Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4
Activity
Docents lead the students through the woods and up on the treelab platforms to discover the ways their chosen insect lives, obtains food and shelter and try to find examples of the different stages of insects.
Materials Needed
(when we can get them—Glasses that show what an insect sees and a UV light to show the "run way" in flowers that the insects see)
Procedure
1. Docent informs students that they are going on a walk through the woods. They are to keep their insect eyes open for food, shelter, protection, etc. They are also to look for places that they might be able to find the different life stages that their insect, or insects in general go through.
2. Docent encourages students to think about what their insect eats, where they live, and how they get water.
3. The Docent takes them on the trails heading toward the treelab platforms.
4. Docent informs students that some insects live way up in the trees and never really live on the ground. Some insects never leave the ground. And some insects, like ants, are found in every layer of the forest.
This activity meets goals specified for grades K--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21…1st--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27…2nd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 23, 25…3rd--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 37, 39…4th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 43, 46…5th--#’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 30, 31
Learning Outcomes
Students will discover the habitats of insects and the life cycle that insects go through.
Instrumental Objectives
SWBAT identify homes of insects, foods of insects, protection for insects and the life cycle of insects. SWBAT experience the habitat of the insect they have chosen.
Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4
**It’s a
Bug’s Life was created by Shannon Whitley and Kathryn
Royall.
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