Mammoths

As a class, and using the knowledge of the human body, identify the body parts of a mammoth using this illustration and worksheet.

Read about factors that can cause animals to become endangered and eventually extinct. Investigate possible reasons for mammoth extinction. Then share your opinion in writing about why we no longer have mammoths on the earth today. What do you think caused their extinction? Provide details to support your argument.

Research two different species of mammoth and create a comparison chart between the two. How were they similar and what made them different? The Elephant Encyclopedia may be a helpful website.

Using this Measuring the Mammoth lesson (page 5), compare mammoth height and tusk length to items around you.

Using the guideline that some mammoths may have covered enough ground in their migrations to circle the earth twice, calculate the distance that a mammoth may have traveled over a lifetime.

The woolly mammoth lived a long time ago. Check out this Tale of the Woolly Mammoth to determine how long ago that was. Then determine how many of their own (student) lifetimes (using their current age) that would amount to.

All animals need food in order to live and grow. 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.

Some events happen very quickly; others occur very slowly, over a time period much longer than one can observe.

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.

The environment affects the traits that an animal develops. Some characteristics result from individuals' interactions with the environment.

Examples of evidence could include needs and 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.

Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces.

Some kinds of plants and animals that once lived on Earth are no longer found anywhere. Fossils provide evidence about the types of organisms that lived long ago and also about the nature of their environments. Examples of data could include type, size, and distributions of fossil organisms.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The collection of fossils and their placement in chronological order is known as the fossil record and documents the change of many life forms throughout the history of the Earth. Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between living and once living organisms in the fossil record enable the classification of living things.

Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between living and once living organisms in the fossil record enable the classification of living things.

The geologic time scale interpreted from rock strata provides a way to organize Earth's history. Examples of Earth's major events could range from being very recent (such as the last Ice Age) to very old (such as the formation of Earth or the earliest evidence of life). Examples can include the evolution or extinction of particular living organisms.