Insects: Their Parts, Homes and Behaviors

The National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institute
10th Street and Constitution Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20560
(202)357-2700
(202) 357-2747 (Education Department)

Curriculum Unit:
This unit is part of the second grade science curriculum which is called Animal Life. It is designed to be a two-week science unit about insects. The major concepts that each child will learn are:
1. All insects have certain adaptive structures in common.
2. Insects live in a particular habitat.
3. Insects have particular needs (water, food etc).
4. Some insects have a social order.
5. Insects are part of the community of animals.

The major purpose of this field trip would be terms and skills covered in class and to see a wide variety of insects in their environments. The title of this project would be "Insects: Their Parts, Homes, and Behaviors."

Instructional Unit:
Grade 2
Science

Objectives:
The students will work with their partners in special groups to fill in the on-site worksheet. There will be a general part of the sheet that everyone will complete. Then there is a section for each group to do. Each group will then "teach" their section to the class when we return to our school. The students will:
1. Correctly draw the variety of insect homes seen.
2. Label all the parts of the insect drawn on their sheet.
3. Describe the function of each part labeled.
4. Draw the 4 adaptive mouth parts found on some insects.
5. Identify the 3 social insects at the exhibit.
6. Name at least 3 jobs done in each social insect colony.
7. Match each animal to the product it gives humans.
8. Record 5 new words learned at the exhibit.
9. Follow the directions given on a worksheet.
10. Record information onto a worksheet correctly.
11. Complete the entire worksheet by the end of the unit.

Pre-Visit Activities:
1. We will receive a Teachers' Guide from the Smithsonian two weeks before the trip, so I can use this as a resource along with the museum worksheets that I sent away for when I booked the trip.
2. There will be many pre-visit activities since we will have been studying insects for two weeks.
These include:

a. Language activities: writings, poems, reports, insect interviews, observation sheets, which will be put into their own insect booklet. We will have watched the filmstrip called, "A Cricket in Times Square," and we will have listened to National Geographic's "Insects" in the listening center. Skills like alphabetizing and comprehension questions and spelling words will all be pertained to insects. Part of the students' booklets will be a glossary section for new insect words. We will have read many insect books and done book talks to the class about them. We will start our KWL chart.
b. Math activities like graphing the number of legs and number of cricket chirps. We will have discussed symmetry using humans and insects. We will practice measuring and using a thermometer.
c. Social Studies activities like describing communities and comparing insect ones to human ones. We will discuss jobs done in our community and in the insect community. We will use our ant farm for help.
d. Science activities like observing the crickets we are caring for and keeping daily data sheets on them. We will be doing simple experiments (like food taste tests). They will diagram parts too.
e. Art activities like an insect mobile, an insect booklet, and making an insect (with pipe cleaners and for our symmetry in math).

7. We will also use the materials sent from the museum.
8. The day before the trip, I will define "entomologist". I will then explain the grouping for the field trip tomorrow. There will be 4 groups of 5 entomologists because the museum requires one adult per five students. We will go over behavior expectations for in the bus and at the museum. I will explain that I will report on behavior to parents when I send home the evaluation folders which go home every other week. 9. We will then go over the whole museum sheet together once it is passed out. Once questions are answered, I will then call up each group to go over their section of the museum worksheet.

On-Site Activities:
The on-site activity will be a tour of the exhibit by me and then the children complete their worksheets. The students will all fill out the beginning section of the sheet. Then each group will have a specific section to complete. There should be cooperative learning so children can work together.

Follow-Up Activities:
1. Once we return to our class, we will spend the next few days on follow-up activities. First, each group of entomologists will present their section to the class. They will help the rest of the class complete the worksheets. Then we will complete our KWL chart. The students will also write and illustrate a description of our trip to put into their insect booklets. Finally, I will use each child's worksheet to find new vocabulary learned at the museum. I will pick no more then 15 words (depending on the words) and we will define them. The students will put these new words into the glossary of their insect booklets.
2. Since there isn't a museum guide, I will informally ask chaperones to evaluate the students in their group. I will collect the worksheets to be sure they are completed properly and I will also be able to check the students when their group orally "teaches" the rest of the class. When I send home the evaluation folders, I will make comments about the child's work and behavior on our trip.
3. I plan to publicize our trip in the newsletter that parents received when we started this unit and I will also discuss our trip when I send home the evaluation folders. The parents will have an opportunity to see the children's work when I send home the finished insect booklets. I also plan to post the children's finished descriptions of the trip to.the museum. If time permits, I would also help the students draw a map of our own imaginary insect zoo. We would draw insects on the map where they would be found in our zoo. With my help, each entomologist group would write up a description of the homes, insect products and parts, and social colonies found in our zoo. We will make this into a bulletin board.

Appendices:
Insects Worksheet

Bibliography:
None

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