Not Your Usual Carnivore
by Kim Holmes, kim.holmes@cpsb.org

Content Area(s)
Science

Grade Level(s)
7, 

Overview
After students have studied adaptations, they will create a concept map and design their own carnivorous plant and explain how the plant attracts and traps insects.

Software
Inspiration
Sketchy
Word To Go

Technology
Computer
Printer
Projector
PowerPoint Software

Objectives
1. TLW create a concept map to identify methods animals use to capture insects. (SI-M-A4)
2. TLW infer how some carnivorous plants attract and capture insects based on pictures and descriptions. (LS-M-D1)
3. TLW design their own carnivorous plant in sketchy to show how the plant attracts and traps insects. (LS-M-D1)
4. TLW compare their carnivorous plant with another student’s plant. (SI-M-B5)

Procedures
(Students should have knowledge of animal adaptations from previous activities and lessons.)
1. Have a looped PowerPoint on projector when students enter - date, objective, and task. Have three animals listed - spider, frog, and bat - on a slide with directions to get palm and open Inspiration.
2. Have students make a map or flow chart to identify the method each animal uses to capture insects.
3. Discuss how some plants have more in common with carnivorous animals than students might expect.
4. Project the article "A Mean, Green Predator" and have students read. (Underlined words need to be defined)
5. Discuss different species of carnivorous plants. On a PowerPoint have a slide show of three different carnivorous plants - pitcher plant, sundew, and butterwort.
6. After students view pictures and descriptions of each plant, have them open Word To Go on palm and infer how each plant attracts and captures insects.
7. You can discuss the inferences or have students assigned to a computer station with linked sites to each plant.
8. Students will then create and design their own carnivorous plant in sketchy. They will need to draw and label the diagram to show how the plant attracts and traps insects.
9. Have students exchange plants with another student to compare their designs.
10. Students will write a description of plant and how it attracts and traps insects in Word To Go under inferences.
11. Students will sync to computer - Word to Go and print.

Resources: Great Source Education Group. Life Science Daybook. Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

Rice, Barry. Galleria Carnivora: A Museum of colour photographs of carnivorous plants. January, 2004 .

Other Supporting Material

Submitted on: 8/4/2004 11:16:53 PM