...........................Optional Middle School Lesson ideas: "Adopt an Insect"
communicate information about its features, characteristics and behaviors.
a). Students produce evidence that demonstrates an understanding of insects such as:
What is an insect? What are the parts of an insect? How does the insect move?
What does it eat? Where does it live? How does it protect itself?
S6 Scientific Tools and Technologies: Students will use the tools of an entomologist
such as the following: written resources; Internet resources; CD ROM's;
Telecommunications such as "Ask an Expert" or emailing a scientist; magnifying glass;
microscope, etc. to study an insect of their choice.
S5 Scientific Thinking: Students will develop a hypothesis as to the identity of their
insect. They will at least determine the group or family name for that insect. (i.e.
beetle, ant, mantid, wasp, etc.).
Students will generate a list of questions they feel an entomologist would have to
answer in order to identify an unknown insect.
S7 Scientific Communication: Students will record their data on worksheets or in a
log book containing their original predetermined questions.
S8 Scientific Investigation: Students will use a number of resources to confirm the
identity of their insect based on their observations of common characteristics.
- Teacher will lead the class in a discussion about Insects.
- The ideas will be placed onto a large concept map using the program, Inspiration.
- The discussion may begin with questions such as: What is an Insect? Where do insects live? Why do we need insects? Are insects helpful or harmful to us? How do insects move? How do insects protect themselves, etc., etc. Students will continue to generate a list of questions.
- Students will be given a rubber model of an insect OR an actual insect to observe.
- Students will be provided with a research data collecting sheet for recording their immediate observations of the insect. This sheet will allow students the opportunity to generate a list of what they already know about their insect simply through observation (i.e. size?; color?; length?; wings?; type of legs?; type of eyes?; antennas?; etc.).
- Teacher will present a Power Point presentation on Insects and their habits (Power Point is part of the Insects CD software.
Students and their classroom teacher will work with the media specialist and develop rubrics for their final project. The final project may be to create a pop-up book: an online web page; a multi-media presentation; etc. Product/Project to be determined by student choice based on their strength intelligence areas.
Rubber, plastic, or actual insect specimens
Clear Plastic petri dishes (or similar) upon which the insect will be placed
Microscope(s); (video microscope if available); magnifying glasses
Student data collection sheet or log book.
Student generated list of questions an entomologist would need to answer in order to identify an insect.
Text:
All books and encyclopedias on Insects that are available for the students. These resources may be from the school library/media center, from students themselves, personal property of the teacher, etc.
CD ROM's such as:Science Nature Guides: Insects (1995). Thunder Bay Press. San Diego, CA. Ants Bees and WaspsEncyclopedia of Nature (1996). Dorling Kindersley. New York, NY.
Web sites such as the following:
Arthropods - From the Zoological Museum
BeeCam - University of Arizona, Center for Insect Science, Education Outreach.
BeeKeepers - What do they do?
Biohaven Insect Image Gallery - This is the largest collection of insect images I have seen on the web to date! Links to insect sounds and movies clips too. *****
Bugfood! - Insect-themed food; Insects as food; Insect snacks from around the world!
Bugscope - Examine insects via an electron microscope.
Bug ID - If you have found an insect and you don't know what it is then you can use this on-line Key to find out to what order your insect belongs.
Bugbios: Shameless Promotion of Insect Appreciation - This site aims to help
you really see insects for the miniature marvels they represent and to understand how intertwined our cultures have become with these alien creatures.
Butterfly Farmer - What you need to know to raise butterflies. This site includes a student's guide to butterflies, photo gallery, and more.
The Butterfly Web Site - Information on butterfly gardening, farming, ecology and education. Includes links to the butterflies of each state.
Class Insecta - Learn more about butterflies and their behaviors.
Classify Insects -Interactive Web site. See how well you can identify insects!
Educator's Network: Insect Lesson Plans and Links - Close to one hundred links on this subject eNature.com - Insects and Spiders
Entomology for Beginners - This page provides some basic information on insects. First a quick look at the anatomy of adult insects, then a short story about the metamorphosis of insects.
Insectopedia - Learn all kinds of information about various insects.
Insects on WWW - Welcome to The Wonderful World of Insects. This page was initially designed for Beginners in Entomology, a course on Insects & Human Society at Entomology of Virginia TECH. From then on, more than 6000 URLs were collected and will be continued. We try to make this site useful to all entomologists. [ Reading Level: 7+ ]
Insect Scavenger Hunt - An online scavenger hunt for your students to explore and conduct research.
Insect Sounds - WOW! Just about every kind of insect you would ever want to hear!
Insect Related Songs - Here are some of my science songs related to insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. They are all written to somewhat familiar tunes, but if any of these tunes are unfamiliar to you, let me know and I will see if I can help.
[ Illustrations: no | Reading Level: 3-6 ]
Insect World - Developed by Gordon Green, Natural History Educational Program Producer for the Royal British Columbia Museum. This is a very thorough web page of all kinds of information about insects. Glossary, book reviews, classification lists, etc.
Invertebrate Department of the Zoological Society - (Secondary Level).
Lepidoptera - Insect links from Furman University
Marvelous Monarchs - An online language arts/science project where a class of third grade students send a book about a mouse and a monarch all across the country. This project invites classroom participation and also has numerous links to Web pages about Monarchs.
Monarch Watch - Photos, biology, migration patterns and more. University of Kentucky Department of Entomology.
Magnificent Monarchs - The World Wildlife Fund of Canada has created an outstanding educational resource that includes a Monarch Migration Game. Try to lead your monarch safely south to its wintering home. Click on the correct route, and learn a little about the Monarchs along the way. Click on the wrong route, and learn of the hazards and obstacles faced by the monarchs.
[ Illustrations: some | Reading Level: 3-6 ]
Movies of Insects and their relatives - This site is a hot list of links to pages that contain "movies" of insects in the wild. There is no standard on what file type the movies are, but most of the links have a link to download any particular player needed.
[ Illustrations: some | Reading Level: 3-6 ]
Myrmecology: The Science about Ants - Ants are members of the family of social insects meaning that they live in organized colonies. Ants make up the family of Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera. The ant family contains more than 4,500 described species that can be found in tropical and temperate areas around the world. Most of the described and unknown species are found in the rain forests.
[ Illustrations: many | Reading Level: 7+ ]
O. Orkin Insect Zoo - Live spiders, centipedes, millipedes, and insects reside year-round in our Insect Zoo. Key to their success are high reproductive rates, short lifetimes, specialized ways of catching prey, raising their young, and protecting themselves. Learn how these fascinating animals are designed for survival and where they fit into the natural world.
[ Illustrations: many | Reading Level: 3-6 ]
Stein's Virtual Insectary - This site provides images of some common insects, but includes information on the foods which they eat as well as their habitats.
Tasty Insect Recipes - Yukky or Yummy, You decide! From Iowa State University, these recipes were featured on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno!
Thembugs - A large site devoted to the preservation and breeding of a variety of insects. However, this site offers wonderful images of insects for students to peruse.
ThinkQuest Insects & More - Learn about insects including crickets, fireflies, moths, roaches, scorpions, and true flies. Also includes information on spiders. [ Reading Level: 3-6 ]
Tick Biology - Background Information on the Biology of Ticks. They site some useful pictures to identify ticks, and also has some illustrations of the tick's life cycle.
[ Illustrations: some | Reading Level: 3-6 ]
3-D Insects - Welcome to the world of virtual insects! If you like real insects, you will love virtual insects because you can see them big without a microscope. Virtual insects are clean and have no smell, they will not bite or sting you. Some times they look even better than real insects. *****
The Science Spot - The World of Insects
Ultimate Guide to Ants - Did you know that the combined weight of all the ants on Earth exceeds the weight of all the humans? Ants facts, videos, activities, links, and more.*****
Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms - Information, lesson plans and resources for teaching children about insects.
Youthfacts in Entomology - A great resource with additional links to other sites. Sponsored by the University of Kentucky.
jcp 2000-2006
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