Curated OER
Penguins Around the World
Students investigate penguins. In this Science lesson plan, students compare and contrast penguins to flying birds. Students use a Venn diagram to illustrate the differences and similarities of penguins and flying birds.
Curated OER
Flight for Survival - Avian Adaptations
Students create imaginary creature that has some of the adaptations birds have.
Curated OER
What Makes A Bird A Bird?
Students identify the characteristics of birds and explain how these characteristics are useful in their survival. They explain how both physical and environmental adaptations help birds survive and reproduce. Students create an...
Curated OER
Fill The Bill
Students identify and describe five different types of beaks. Using that information, they explain how each of them is adapted to feed on different foods. In groups, they travel around the room to various stations in order to practice...
Curated OER
Build a Hawaiian Bird
Fifth graders make a model of a bird. In this animal adaptations lesson, 5th graders examine how birds adapt to their environment, using Hawaiian birds as an example. Students create their own bird using adaptation paper cut outs then...
Curated OER
Adaptations of the Beak
Students examine the principles of adaptation using mouth structure of animals as an example. Students look specifically at the various shapes of beaks of birds and the bill of the platypus.
Curated OER
Bird Beak Anatomy
Third graders participate in an activity to determine which tool will work the best to gather food. They create analogies about how the experiment relates to birds. They brainstorm about which adaptation helps or hurts the survival of an...
Read Works
A Busy Bird
Kindergartners read a short passage and answer questions based on what they read. The question set involves circling pictures, writing words, and drawing pictures.
Curated OER
Bird Break Buffet
Students discuss what human traits might help a person be more successful. They discuss how all birds are of the same species but have different beak traits. Students comprehend that the birds that eat the most food will have a baby with...
Curated OER
Bird Beak Buffet
Students complete an activity that allows them to better understand that birds traits are closely related to what they eat, where they live, etc. In this bird trait lesson students complete an activity, create a data board and graph the...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Evolution in Action: Data Analysis
An environmental factor, such as a drought, sometimes speeds up the rate of natural selection. Scholars analyze data on the beaks of birds around the time of the drought. They compare those that survived to those that perished and find...
Curated OER
Battle of the Beaks
Students explore adaptive advantage, based on beak function, by simulating birds competing for various foods.
Curated OER
Look Up - Birds
Students investigate the concept of birds. They identify five different types of birds and name the characteristics that make them different than other living things. Students also name the different parts of the bird and how they are...
Curated OER
Birds Learning Cycle Lesson Plan
Ninth graders explore the various adaptations of birds and compare differences and similarities of different birds.
Curated OER
Bird Land
Young scholars role-playing the concept of evolution through naturally occurring mutations. Working in pairs, they model how birds have adapted to the food sources in their environment through changes in their beak size and shapes....
ARKive
Biodiversity and Evolution – Darwin’s Finches
Teens experience natural selection firsthand (or first beak) in an activity that has them act as finches foraging for food. Using different household items to act as different beak styles, your little finches will collect as much food...
Curated OER
Compare Human-made Objects with Natural Objects
Students examine and observe how many human-made objects get their basic design from things in nature. They listen to the book "Nature Got There First," compare/contrast hollow bones with drinking straws, bird beaks and tool pliers, and...
Scholastic
Awesome Adaptations
Engaged learners discover how an owl beak works and how animals adapt to their environment. This task is part one of a three-part series.
Curated OER
Birds
In this birds worksheet, students review the characteristics of birds including their adaptations for flight. Students review the diversity of bird adaptations. This worksheet has 4 short answer, 7 true or false, 6 matching, and 3 fill...
Curated OER
Clipbirds
Students attempt to pick up various objects with a wide variety of beaks, including scissors, spoons, etc.
Curated OER
Feathered Feeders
Learners investigate variation in bird beaks and the interrelationships of form and function by classifying birds with similar beak shapes, inferring about the possible bird foods based on beak shapes, and locating and identifying...
Curated OER
The Drinking Bird
Students discover how the "drinking bird" functions. In this investigative lesson, students discover what makes the drinking bird drink by analyzing relative humidity, temperature, and barometric pressure.
Polar Trec
Swan Savvy
Just like so many other birds, swans migrate during the cold winter months. Your class can gain a better understanding of migration and bird life as they act out some of the activities common to the tundra swan. They make a nest, sit on...
Field Museum
The Case of Darwin's Finches
One of the most striking pieces of evidence for Darwin's Evolution of Species was his observations of finches and how their beaks differed from island to island, depending on their primary food sources. So what would happen to the theory...