Assessment Activity Simulation for a
Bird Beaks and Adaptation Activity
Overview
This is an activity to use with professional and preprofessional educators to discuss assessment and plan for different kinds of assessment in science instruction. Different kinds of assessments that connect student experiences from concepts and standards through activities (opportunities to learn) to outcome levels on rubrics or scoring guides.
Prepare answers for the discussion questions and complete the activities
Discussion questions
- What is assessment? See assessment article
- What kind of assessment is included in the plan? See four kinds of assessment
- What is being assessed?
Related activities
- Select two big ideas, skills, or generalization
- Unpack each and identify supporting information,
- Then identify, for each, questions in the plan that could be used for the four different kinds of assessment (diagnostic, formative, summative, and generative). If there are places where you believe some are missing, then suggest where they should be added.
- Make a scoring guide or rubric for your two categories and identify or write four levels for each.
Bird Beaks and Adaptions Activity Plan
Generalization: There is a relationship between animal parts and the habitat in which the animal lives. | Form & function | Evolution | Change |
Skills: | Observation, | Classification, | Communication, | report making | Inferences |
Materials
| Bird pictures file | Bird picture file in .pdf format |
| Habitat picture file | Habitat picture file in .pdf format |
Activity 1
( Exploration and Diagnostic assessment for ___________ ).
Have the learner Pick a bird.
- What does the bird look like?
- What does the bird eat?
- How does the bird get its food?
- What does the bird use to eat?
- Do all birds eat the same things?
Activity 2
(Invention and Formative assessment for _______________ ).
Give students the materials and have them try ways of using the materials to get the worms and bugs near their mouths (1 & 2 not in only 3 in their mouth).
- Gummy worms on a plate with two straws
- Uncooked pasta on a plate with bottomless paper cup
- Thin slices of fruit on a plate. Only use mouth no hands to pick up the fruit.
Activity 3
(Invention and Formative assessment for _______________ ).
Draw a mouth that would be useful for a bird to eat these foods.
- How would you direct the discussion when students share their drawings with the class for the targeted outcome?
- How does the shape of the mouth or beak parts affect how the food can be got?
- How does the shape help or hinder getting the food?
Activity 4
(Invention and Formative assessment for _______________ ).
Students are grouped and given a set of bird pictures.
- Ask them to classify the birds by beaks and give each group a descriptive name according to their beak.
- List kinds of food that would be most easily picked up for each kind of beak.
- Where could each kind of food be found?
- How does the shape of the beak help or hinder its ability to get the food?
- Draw a chart with this data.
How would you direct the discussion when students share their drawings with the class for the targeted outcome? What set of questions might you ask for each picture and how it was classified for the targeted outcomes?
Activity 5
(Invention and Formative assessment for _______________ ).
Give the students example photos for each of the following: | habitat page | habitat .pdf | pictures.
- Habitat 1: Dry cereal floating in water,
- Habitat 2: popcorn flying off the shelf,
- Habitat 3: gummy worms in oatmeal,
- Habitat 4: water in a tall thin vase (flower nectar),
- Habitat 5: apple hung from a string (fruit on tree or insects under bark)
- What tools (straw, two wood skewers, pliers, tweezers, two spoons, spoon with slots, and assorted odds and ends) are best to get the food at each habitat to a mouth.
- Match habitat 1 – 5 to the following birds’ pictures: hawk, sparrow, duck, pelican, swallow, snipe, hummingbird, toucan, and warbler and tell why a particular bird was chosen.
- Write summary paragraph of the lesson’s main idea.
How would you direct the discussion when students share their drawings with the class for the targeted outcome? What set of questions might you ask for each picture and how it was classified for the targeted outcomes?
Activity 6
Invention and Formative assessment for _______________ ).
Pictures of three different habitats. | habitat page | habitat .pdf |
- Swamp with insects floating,
- Shore with small fish near shore and
- Insects in rotting vegetation.
- What beaks would be best for getting food in each place in each picture?
- Draw those beaks on board. They include: predator birds, seed-eating birds, water birds, insect-eating birds, other sources.
- Teacher helps students write generalization
- Students role play a bird …
How would you direct the discussion when students share their drawings with the class for the targeted outcome?
What set of questions might you ask for each picture and how it was classified for the targeted outcomes?
How would you direct the discussion when students role play a bird with their beak with the class for the targeted outcome?
What set of questions might you ask for each role play and how does it was fit the targeted outcomes?
Activity 7
(Invention and Summative assessment for _______________ ).
Bird pictures from Activity 1 plus some more if the students brought or found additional of interest
| habitat page | habitat .pdf |
Create a chart or Venn diagram that relates the bird, bill type, and habitat.
Activity 8 (Expansion and Generative assessment for _______________ ).
Pictures of mammals. Ask how the animals are adapted for eating their food. (use teeth structure) or Ask how the animals get their food and use external body parts and functions.
Scoring guide rubrics
Add here ...
Extension suggestions
Bird eggs have evolved in form and function over the years.
- Form: shape of elongation (ellipticity), pointy at one end (raindrop), durability. Egg shell develops over membrane, therefore depends on membrane's shape. Shape: roll off ledge, fit with other eggs in clutch, amount of calcium. Need to fit in pelvis, which is streamlined for flight. Samples: Swifts, Sandpipers, Puffbirds, Ostrich, Penguin.
- Source: Flight and shape
- Source: Wings and shape
- Source: Two dimensions of an egg chart with examples
- Function: protect and nourish