SAVY Saturday, Week 3, Animal Adaptations (1st-2nd)
Dear SAVY Families,
WOW! What a fun, engaging last day that we had at Spring SAVY 2025: Animal Adaptations. I think your scientists will agree that today was the best one yet!
We started the morning by rotating through adaptation stations. Using the animal flashcards, students had to find a common adaptation between the animals seen on the group of flashcards. Some of the groups of animals were much easier to find a common adaptation than others. Our SAVY scientists really enjoyed getting to collaborate with each other to learn more about the animals that they were tasked with analyzing. Then, scientists had to read adaptation clues about an animal to try and determine what the animal was. The scientists did an amazing job figuring out the mystery animals and using the clues provided to back up their thinking.
Later, we observed our mealworms. Our scientists were excited to see how much the mealworms had changed in just one week of thriving in their plastic cup habitats. Unfortunately, some had to learn about the cycle of life because not all mealworms made it, but this made for a great discussion and connection to natural change. Next, we asked another question: Do mealworms prefer wet or dry environments? The scientists discussed a way that we could answer this question through experimentation, wrote a hypothesis, and then conducted their experiment. Finally, we discussed the findings as a class to answer our question. Once again, this was great practice in completing the scientific process with integrity.
To end our day, we completed our culminating project. Students had the chance to show off everything that they had learned at SAVY by creating their own critter. First, we introduced the project and chose a habitat that our created creature will live in. Choosing a habitat was the first step because it determines what adaptations the critter will need to survive. Students began brainstorming the adaptations that their critter would need in preparation for making and displaying their critter.
The rest of the day was focused on our Create a Critter project! Students had to make sure that their critter had at least four specific adaptations to be able to survive and thrive in its habitat. This was a challenge for some scientists, but I was impressed with their creativity and perseverance!
Our SAVY scientists used various art supplies to create their critters. Watching the ideas come to life as a 3D model was one of the most rewarding parts of this course for me and the scientists alike! I know they will be excited to share their model and poster display for their created critter at home. To end the day, the scientists presented their posters and created critters to the class and other members of the SAVY admin team. Some scientists were nervous to present their work at first, but all of them rose to the challenge of displaying their work. I am so proud of the students for executing another essential skill of a scientist: sharing and presenting their ideas.
Discussion Questions:
- How did your mealworm change?
- Was this how you predicted it would change?
- How will you continue to observe your mealworm?
- What was the most challenging part of the Create a Critter project?
- Where is your created critter going to live?
- Did you enjoy presenting your work?
- How did presenting to others feel?
Thank you for sharing your scientist’s bright mind and creativity with me the last three weekends. I hope to see each of them in a future SAVY course!
Sincerely,
Ms. Gruchot