Module/Week 6 Development
Resources
Additional activities, a behind-the-scenes gallery, recommended books, and more.
About this Guide
Curate Your Work
Your previous coursework and life experiences can fit into the nine science-biology-animals learning outcomes. If you have artifacts from your past, like stories, photos, video, or postcards, you can use these to represent your knowledge as well. This course is all about pulling together the threads; its time to organize the concepts, skills, and connections that only you can curate.
Lesley
Additional Activities
Make More Models
Once you start making models as part of this guide’s assignment, you will quickly realize that models come in many forms: planning lists, architectural models, clothing designs…the list is endless. Try making models related to your life interests that capture your unique perspective of the world.
Awesome Amphibians
At most pet stores you will find a wide range of fish, mammals, reptiles, and even birds. But the amphibians are in short supply. The same holds for museums and zoos. Spend some time getting to know the amphibians, the link between aquatic fish and terrestrial reptiles.
Archiving Nests
Generally it is not a good idea to collect nests; they often contain parasites that may still be in use, are difficult to remove, and can fall apart over time. If you place the nest in an air-tight clear plastic bag, it is startling how many things crawl out from between the leaves and mud. An alternative is to photograph nests, tag them with field collection information, and keep a digital collection that builds over time.
Care Goes Both Ways
Service dogs flip the table: an animal caring for us, sometimes in life-saving ways. If you have access to a highly trained dog, it is an opportunity to study the animal-human relationship and the degree of learning that occurs in both species.
If you are in Oregon, the High Desert of eastern Oregon is the place to go to find amazing reptiles.
Science posters often contain impressive art: bold enough to stand alone on a wall and informative enough to be used in a classroom.
Behind-the-Scenes
Unusual Alliance
Our albino aquatic frog spends a lot of time with a male Betta fish. We don’t have an explanation, but it is an interesting relationship.
Big Appetite
Some amphibians have a large (and expensive) appetite. Ceratophrys (Pac-man frogs) can eat mice and other amphibians, and with good care can live up to 10 years in captivity.
A life cycle display showing concepts in this 6A guide and the next 6B guide.
Here is additional information about adopting and caring for a Peacock Day Gecko.
This female chameleon is used to being fed and handled by humans. She is quite active, but females often don’t get adopted as quickly as the more colorful males. If it wasn’t for her 15 crickets-a-day feeding plan, she’d be home with us.
Consistent Maintenance
To support western bluebird populations, it will take many years and potentially generations of birders setting up, cleaning, and repairing nest boxes, year after year.
Bold Moves
Two of the six rats were bolder right from the start: Binx and Blaze are explorers and get carried around while the other rats run on their wheels or wrestle on the ramps.
One of the perks of being a biology teacher: having an excuse to do this.
Recommended Books
Life cycles and development come to life with mealworms.
If you can't get enough of amphibians and reptiles, there is plenty to learn.
