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Grade 1. In 10 lessons, students explain phenomena and solve problems related to young and adult plants and animals' survival and growth. In the science challenge, students apply what they have learned to determine the group of penguins to which some penguin chicks belong and how mimicking plant and animal parts and behavior may solve a human problem. Module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Grade 1. Module Highlights: In 10 lessons, students explain phenomena and solve problems related to young and adult plants and to animals' survival and growth. Students first identify patterns of similarities and differences in young and adult animals to explain why two types of penguins found in a single colony look alike and different at the same time. Students also use patterns they observe in data to suggest how young plants may appear in comparison to the adult plant. Students then construct arguments from evidence to explain penguin behavior. Students solve human problems by mimicking plant and animal external parts. In the science challenge, students apply what they have learned throughout the module by constructing an argument from evidence to determine the group of penguins to which the chicks belong and how mimicking plant and animal parts and behavior may solve a human problem.

This module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Student Readers Available HERE

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• 1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
• 1-LS1-2: Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
• K-2-ETS1-1: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

• All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.

• Adult plants and animals can have young. In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring to survive.

• Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive. Plants also respond to some external inputs.

• Young animals are very much, but not exactly like, their parents. Plants also are very much, but not exactly, like their parents.

• Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways.

• A situation that people want to change or create can be approached as a problem to be solved through engineering.
• Before beginning to design a solution, it is important to clearly understand the problem.

Science and Engineering Practices
Focal:

• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Engaging in argument from evidence

• Patterns
• Structure and function

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Lesson Summaries
Lesson 1: A Pair of Penguins
Young animals look like their parents, but not exactly like their parents.
Students record observations to compare an adult and young penguin, and use the observations to identify patterns in similarities and differences.
Lesson 2: Cubs and Chicks
Students observe and record key characteristics of animal parents and offspring to identify patterns in similarities and differences between young and adult animals' features.
Lesson 3: One of These Birds Is Not Like the Others
Students use observations of several species of penguins as evidence to identify patterns of features in adult penguins.
Lesson 4: Like Parent, Like Offspring
Students observe similarities and differences to identify patterns in young and adult plants' features. Students use patterns as evidence to support ideas about how young tussac plants may look similar and different from the adult plant.
Lesson 5: Staying Alive
The young penguin's behavior communicates to the adult that it is hungry.
Students use observations as evidence to explain the penguin's behavior. Students obtain information about animal parents and their offspring's behavior and use it to refine their explanations.
Lesson 6: Penguin Protection
Students use a computer simulation to obtain information about how penguin behaviors help offspring survive. Students use evidence to construct arguments explaining the penguin's behavior.
Lesson 7: This Place Is for the Birds
Students define problems based on observations and design solutions using biomimicry.
Students define problems scientists might face while observing animals in nature. Students investigate how mimicking plant and animal parts could solve the problems.
Lesson 8: Mimic and Make
Students use biomimicry to design a solution to a problem facing scientists as they observe the black-browed albatross.
Science Challenge
Lesson 9: Penguin Problems, Part 1
Students use similarities and differences between the young penguins and several adult penguins to determine the group of penguins to which the chicks belong.
Students use observations as evidence to construct an argument for the group of penguins to which the chicks belong.
Lesson 10: Penguin Problems, Part 2
Students use evidence to support a claim about plant and animal parts or behavior that may be mimicked to help Ada.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.