Unit A: Life Cycles

How does a mother sea lion find her pups?

1. Get Set to Explore

Vocabulary

  • sense: To notice something by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting it.
  • vibration: A shaking movement, or a rapid back-and-forth movement.

Building Background

  • Review the vocabulary words and definitions with the class.
  • Ask children to imagine that a friend wants to find them on a crowded playground. What might the friend do? List the children's ideas on the board.
  • Go over the list with the class. Guide children to identify the different kinds of signals the friend who is looking for them might send out. These would probably include sounds (shouts or whistles) and visuals (waving or beckoning). It might also include touches (tapping on the shoulder).
  • Help children categorize the signals based on the sense needed to detect them. Write the categories with the examples on the board. Keep the list on the board for children to refer to at the start of the simulation.
  • Review the Discover! question and ask children to predict what a mother sea lion might do when searching for her pups.

2. Guide the Exploration

  • Have children launch the Discover! Simulation and listen closely to the question and the directions.
  • Children should first look at the different animals and their mothers. In their minds, they should match each mother with its baby. Then they should think about how the different animals move, sound, and act.
  • Encourage children to predict how each mother animal would find its baby. Ask volunteers to share their ideas. If children have difficulty coming up with predictions, refer them to the different categories of signals on the board. Also guide them to think back to their ideas of how the different animals move, sound, and act.
  • Have children test their prediction of how the mother sea lion finds her baby by moving the mother sea lion to the baby sea lion. The simulation will explain the signals the mother and baby sea lion exchange. It also explains how the mother uses her sense of smell to identify her baby.
  • Ask children to think back to the predictions they made about how other mother animals might find their babies. Tell them that they can check their predictions by dragging each mother animal to her baby animal. Guide children to take note of the different signals and senses the mothers use to find their babies.

3. Review/Assess

  • Review Step 3's closing text with the class. Let children share what they learned about the different animals and how they find their young. Encourage children to ask questions if something seems unclear to them.
  • Pose the Extension question to the children. Direct children to look at the different animals on the computer screen. Ask: Which mothers look like their babies? Which mothers do not look like their babies?
  • After children have had a chance to look at the mothers and their babies, you can share these answers with the class.
    • The alligator, sea lion, and bird baby each looks like its mother.
    • The toad baby is a tadpole. It has a tail and gills and doesn't look like its mother.

If time permits, present children with the following questions:

  • Critical Thinking Classify Think back to the different signals the animal mothers used to find their babies. What senses are needed to detect each of the signals? Answer: Sea lion cry: hearing; alligator chirp: hearing; Surinam toad's eggs on her back: touch; Thorn Bug vibrations: touch; Gray bat finds baby bat: hearing and scent
  • Inquiry Skill Compare Which senses do both you and these animals use to help you find family members? Answer: Sight, hearing, touch Which sense do sea lions use to find family members, which you are less likely to use? Answer: Smell

4. Reaching All Learners

On Level: Auditory Learners

Bring in tapes, CDs, or other recordings of different animal calls. You can find recordings of birdcalls, whale songs, and perhaps other animal cries to play for children. You might also be able to find recordings of different environments, such as a rain forest, a pond at night, a beach, etc. Ask children to identify the different animal sounds they hear in these recordings.