Aug 162013
Students will explore their own level of assertiveness via a quick personality test to show that scores are not all the same in humans. Students will then do a manipulative simulation of her how individual variation can be maintained within a population by examining the survival and growth of bluegill that exhibit more aggressive and less aggressive foraging strategies. Students will do a behavioral lab experiment observing the behaviors of crickets in the presence or absence of food. Students will then be guided in creating their own inquiry experiment.
At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to:
- Explain why intraspecific variation (individual variation within a population) can be maintained. (i.e. not always one best “adapted” trait)
- Learn how zoologists study behaviors of animals in varying contexts (crickets in the presence and absence of food).
- Create and carry out inquiry experiments regarding other cricket behavior.
Resources:
- Lesson plan (.docx)
- Personality (risk) test (.docx)
- Bluegill simulation rules and steps (.docx)
- Cricket Inquiry protocol (.docx)
- Website on cricket anatomy, behavior and calling
Lesson Plan created by GK-12 Fellow Melissa Kjelvik, 2010