Activity 2.4 - Questions About Animals (30 min)

Tell students that they will be investigating mealworms in the next lesson to try to answer their questions.

• Show slide 3 and the video of mealworms eating a carrot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRYE0JjHYoQ ). Have students share their observations and discuss how mealworms are similar and different from a child or other animals.
• If you already have mealworms for the investigation, you can have students observe actual mealworms instead of watching the video.

Show slide 4 of the PPT. Have students read 2.4 Mealworms Factsheet Reading using the Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy. See the Questions, Connections, Questions Reading Strategy Educator Resource document for information about how to engage students with this strategy.

• As students read with a partner, have them stop and discuss the italicized questions in the reading with their partner.
• After pairs are finished reading, allow students to share what they found interesting about mealworms, including the differences in what molecules make up mealworms compared to the molecules in their food. Student should notice that mealworms eat food composed mainly of carbohydrates, but mealworms are not. The reason for this is an unanswered question that students will consider in later lessons.
• Show slide 5 of the PPT. Have students share their ideas about how mealworms are like other animals, including a child.

Show students slides 6-9 of 2.4 Questions about Animals PPT

• Slide 6 animates zooming in to an animal.
• Slide 7 shows the diversity of shapes and sizes of animals
• Slide 8 shows that despite the diversity in slide 3 that all animals are made of different types of cells.
• Slide 9 shows that all animal cells are made up of the same types of large organic molecules.

Have students discuss the scales at which all animals are more alike than different (the cellular and atomic-molecular scale).

Show slide 10 of the PPT. Discuss with students how the rules about matter and energy also apply to mealworms.

• Show slide 11 with the Three Questions. Remind students that when explaining animals, they will be answering the Three Questions which describe movements and changes in matter and energy

Review the rules to follow with students. Have students discuss how the rules to follow can apply to animals.

Show slide 12 of the PPT. Have students look back at their 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Animals Growing. Students should consider their ideas in light of what they have learned in Lesson 2. Students can add to or change their ideas in a different color pen or pencil.

Show slide 13 of the PPT. Have students share out any new questions they have about how mealworms grow, move, and function.

Show slide 14 of the 2.4 Questions about Animals PPT.

• Conclusions: How are mealworms similar to people?
• Predictions: What questions do you have about how mealworms grow, move, and function?
• On a sheet of paper or a sticky note, have students individually answer the exit ticket questions. Depending on time, you may have students answer both questions, assign students to answer a particular question, or let students choose one question to answer. Collect and review the answers.
• The conclusions question will provide you with information about what your students are taking away from the activity. Student answers to the conclusions question can be used on the Driving Questions Board (if you are using one). The predictions question allows students to begin thinking about the next activity and allows you to assess their current ideas as you prepare for the next activity. Student answers to the predictions question can be used as a lead in to the next activity.

Show slide 15 of the 2.4 Questions about Animals PPT.

• Pass out a Learning Tracking Tool for Animals to each student.
• Explain that students will add to the tool after activities to keep track of what they have figured out that will help them to answer the unit driving question.
• Have students write the activity name in the first column, "Questions about Animals."
• Have a class discussion about what students did during the activity. When you come to consensus as a class, have students record the answer in the second column of the tool.
• Have a class discussion about what students figured out during the activity that will help them in answering the unit driving question. When you come to consensus as a class, have students record the answer in the third column of the tool.
• Have a class discussion about what students are wondering now that will help them move towards answering the unit driving question. Have students record the questions in the fourth column of the tool.
• Have students keep their Learning Tracking Tool for future activities.
• Example Learning Tracking Tool

Activity Chunk	What Did We Do?	What Did We Figure Out?	What Are We Asking Now?
Questions about animals	"Zoom into" food and examine nutrition labels to learn about the materials in plants, animals, and out food including organic materials (fats, carbohydrates, and proteins).	Food is made of molecules that contain matter and energy. These molecules have to get to cells in the animal's body.	What goes in when an animal eats? What comes out?