How Animals Use Their Senses to Find Food

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

4

Overview

In this lesson, students consider how animals solve the problem of finding food, especially under harsh climatic conditions. They explore how a variety of animals use their senses to find food and how bees, in particular, communicate about food to other bees. Finally, student teams create a scavenger hunt for other teams with clues that require using different senses and that give information about the kind and quantity of food and its location.

Science (2015) Grade(s): 4

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Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

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Vocabulary

  • investigate
  • evidence
  • transmit
  • perception
  • receptors
  • senses
  • sensory information
  • process
  • memories

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Different types of sense receptors detect specific types of information within the environment.
  • Sense receptors send information about the surroundings to the brain.
  • Information that is transmitted to the brain by sense receptors can be processed immediately as perceptions of the environment and/or stored as memories.
  • Immediate perceptions or memories processed by the brain influences an animal's actions or responses to features in the environment.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify different ways animals receive, process, and respond to information.
  • Identify evidence of different ways animals receive, process, and respond to information to be investigated.
  • Plan ways to Investigate different ways animals receive, process, and respond to information.
  • Collect and communicate data of different ways animals receive, process, and respond to information.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Sensory input, the brain, and behavioral output are all parts of a system that allows animals to engage in appropriate behaviors.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Systems and System Models

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

PBS

License Type

Custom

Accessibility

Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings
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