Butterflies

Read aloud the book "What's the Difference Between a Butterfly and a Moth?" Discuss: How is a moth similar to a butterfly? How are they different? As a class, create a Venn diagram or other graphic organizer to show similarities and differences. 

Draw and label the main body parts of a butterfly.

After reading books such as "From Tadpole to Frog" and "From Caterpillar to Butterfly," discuss how the life cycle of a butterfly is similar to and different from the life cycle of a frog. 

Create a detailed poster of the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly, including approximate lengths of time for each stage.

Use stencils or other shapes to construct butterfly art.

Sort teacher-provided pictures into categories of moths and butterflies. Answer math word questions about how many there are in each group and the difference in quantity between groups.

Research the distance that Monarch butterflies fly in one year. Convert that distance to feet or yards. If your measurements are metric, convert to meters or centimeters.

All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Animals need to take in food, but plants produce their own. Different types of animals need different kinds of food. All living things need water.

Living things need water, air, and resources from the land. They live in places that have the things they need. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.

All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see; hear; grasp objects; protect themselves; move from place to place; and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air. Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive. Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking animal solutions could include detecting intruders by mimicking eyes and ears.

Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways.

Some plants can depend on animals, wind, and water for pollination or to move their seeds around. Emphasis is on the interaction between animals and plant.

There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water. Emphasis is on the diversity of living things in each of a variety of different habitats.

Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles. Changes organisms go through during their life form a pattern.

Being part of a group helps animals obtain food, defend themselves, and cope with changes. Groups may serve different functions and vary dramatically in size.

Many characteristics involve both inheritance and environment. The environment affects the traits that an organism develops.

Examples of evidence could include needs, characteristics of the organisms, and habitats involved. The organisms and their habitat make up a system in which the parts depend on each other.

Animals have various body systems with specific functions for sustaining life: skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, muscular, digestive, etc.

Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.

The energy released from food was once energy from the Sun. The energy was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter. Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain body warmth and for motion. Examples of models could include diagrams and flow charts.

Populations live in a variety of habitats, and change in those habitats affects the organisms living there. When the environment changes in ways that affect a place’s physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die.  Examples of environmental changes could include changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other organisms.

The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants. Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants and animals) and therefore operate as decomposers. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem.

Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. Individuals and communities can often mitigate these effects through innovation and technology.

All living things are made up of cells, which is the smallest unit that can be said to be alive. An organism may consist of one single cell (unicellular) or many different numbers and types of cells (multicellular).

In multicellular organisms, the body is a system of multiple interacting subsystems. These subsystems are groups of cells that work together to form tissues and organs that are specialized for particular body functions.

Living things share certain characteristics. (These include response to environment, reproduction, energy use, growth and development, life cycles, made of cells, etc.)  Organisms reproduce, either sexually or asexually, and transfer their genetic information to their offspring. Examples should include both biotic and abiotic items, and should be defended using accepted characteristics of life.

Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors. In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction. Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources. Emphasis is on cause and effect relationships between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources.

Predatory interactions may reduce the number of organisms or eliminate whole populations of organisms. Mutually beneficial interactions, in contrast, may become so interdependent that each organism requires the other for survival. Although the species involved in these competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems, the patterns of interactions of organisms with their environments, both living and nonliving, are shared.  Emphasis is on predicting consistent patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic components of ecosystems.

Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments.

Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. Emphasis is on recognizing patterns in data and making warranted inferences about changes in populations, and on evaluating empirical evidence supporting arguments about changes to ecosystems.

Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in Earth’s ecosystems. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health.  Changes in biodiversity can influence humans’ resources (such as food, energy, and medicines,) as well as ecosystem services that humans rely on.

Natural selection leads to the predominance of certain traits in a population, and the suppression of others. Emphasis is on using concepts of natural selection, including overproduction of offspring, passage of time, variation in a population, selection of favorable traits, and heritability of traits.

Adaptation by natural selection acting over generations is one important process by which species change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common; those that do not become less common. Thus, the distribution of traits in a population changes. Examples could include Peppered Moth population changes before and after the industrial revolution.

Human activities can positively and negatively influence the biosphere, sometimes altering natural habitats and ecosystems.  Technology and engineering can potentially help us best manage natural resources as populations increase. Examples of the design process include examining human interactions and designing feasible solutions that promote stewardship. Examples can include water usage, land usage, and pollution.