Researching Co-Adaptation

Goal

Students will research and present different examples of co-adaptation

Estimated Time

45 minutes

Setting Required

Indoor Classroom

Standards

  • S4L2. Students will identify factors that affect the survival or extinction of organisms such as adaptation, variation of behaviors (hibernation), and external features (camouflage and protection).
    • a. Identify external features of organisms that allow them to survive or reproduce better than organisms that do not have these features (for example: camouflage, use of hibernation, protection, etc.).
    • b. Identify factors that may have led to the extinction of some organisms.

Materials

  • Journals or 8.5×11 copy paper (1 per student)
  • Coloring supplies for each student

Procedures

  1. Allow students to research co-adaptations in small groups.
    • Examples of topics could include:
      • Interrelationship of figs and wasps
      • Interrelationship of long leaf pines, wiregrass, gopher tortoises, and fire
      • Interrelationship of monarch butterflies, milkweed plants, and bluejays
      • Interrelationship of honeybees and the particular flowers they pollinate
      • Migration of monarch butterflies
      • Migration of whooping cranes
  2. Provide time for students to develop a presentation to share with the class about how the species they researched co-evolved.