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Unit 4C, Systems in Living Things

Unit Project: Living Systems Museum Display

Students will design and build a museum display that compares the systems in a plant, a vertebrate, and an invertebrate.

Project Link 1 (Chapter 1, p. C27)
Select a plant, an invertebrate, and a vertebrate. Research where the organisms live and what the animals eat. Then find out how museums set up plant and animal displays.

Internet Links
Vertebrates

Franklin Institute: Animals--Vertebrates
http://www.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/animals.html

The Oakland Zoo in Knowland Park
http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/atoz.html

Wired@school: Something Froggy
http://sln.fi.edu/fellows/fellow9/jun99/index.html

Invertebrates

Spencer Entomological Museum: Bug of the Month
http://www.insecta.com/

WebQuest: Wonderful World of Invertebrates
http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/SEP/CTS98/Invertebrates.html

Plants

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
Metropolitan Plants
http://www.bbg.org/sci/nymf/index.html

Museums

The Franklin Institute Science Museum
http://sln.fi.edu/

The Franklin Institute Science Museum
Animals--Vertebrates
http://www.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/animals.html

Boston Museum of Science: Exhibits
http://www.mos.org/exhibits/index.html

Musee Directory to Museums
http://www.musee-online.org/review.cgi?type=CH

Chicago Academy of Science: Nature Museum Exhibits
http://www.chias.org/museum/exhibits

National Aquarium, Baltimore: Animal--Species
http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/index.html

Project Link 2 (Chapter 2, p. C37)
Choose a plant and research the plant system that allows for gas exchange. Research the respiratory systems of the invertebrate and vertebrate you chose. Create a display that compares these three systems. Make posters and build three-dimensional models of each of the systems for a museum display.

Internet Links
Oxygen-Delivering Systems

Hinkle Creek Elementary School
ThinkQuest: Photosynthesis
http://tqjunior.advanced.org/3715/photo3.html

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution:
Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology
http://nmnhwww.si.edu/departments/vert.html

Science Learning Network:
Oxygen Delivering Systems
http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/systems/respiration.html

Project Link 3 (Chapter 3, p. C55)
Explore the transport system of the plant you are researching. Then find out about the circulatory system of the animals you are researching. Compare the plant's transport system with the animal's circulatory systems. Create posters and three-dimensional models of each of these systems for your museum display.

Internet Links
Transport Systems

National Aquarium in Baltimore:
Animals - Species, Who They Are
http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/index.html

Science Learning Network:
The Circle of Blood
http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/systems/circulation.html

Hinkle Creek Elementary School
ThinkQuest: How Plants Grow
http://tqjunior.advanced.org/3715/root2.html

Student Resources

  • Creating a Museum Display
  • Building a Model of an Air Sac

  • Project Link 4 (Chapter 4, p. C81)
    Find out about the life cycles of the plant and animals you are researching. Show how the life cycles are alike and different. Then make posters and three-dimensional models of each of their life cycles. Set up a panel of judges to judge the displays. Give awards based on different categories, such as "Best Designed" and "Most Informative." Invite guests to visit the display and learn from it.

    Internet Links
    Life Cycles

    University of Illinois Extension--The Great Plant Escape:
    What is the life cycle of a plant?
    http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/case1/case1.html

    Canadian Fishing Company: Life of the Sockeye Salmon
    http://www.canfisco.com/socklife.html

    National Aquarium, Baltimore: Animal-- Species
    http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/index.html

    American Museum of Natural History
    Human Aging: How We Grow
    http://www.amnh.org/enews/aging/a7.html


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