Field Investigation: Comparing Life Cycles

Students compare their life cycle (the life cycle of a human) with the life cycle of an animal that they find in the Habitat Lab.

Click on the maroon links below to access free educational materials:

Lesson Plans | ALSDE Standards Taught

Activity Page #1: Comparing the Life Cycle of an Animal to a Human (or as Word Doc)

Activity Page #2: Comparing the Life Cycle of a Frog to a Human (or as Word Doc) with Answer Page

Outdoor Activity Materials: activity pages, clipboards, pencils, field identification guides

Step 1: Engage through Discussion

Engage the students and capture their interests with an Interactive Q&A (or as PDF) that allows you to click through the questions one at a time. You can gauge your students’ understanding of the topic as they answer the questions. Print and use the Q&A Info Sheet (or as Word Doc) to anticipate the next question in the Interactive Q&A and to guide the conversation with the students. (Note: For the PowerPoint (PPT), click “Slide Show” & “From Beginning” to display the questions and answers separately.)

Use these tools to continue the discussion:

Background Info for Students (or as Word Doc)

Step 2: Explore with Literature

As you read these books, you can further explore the topic and discuss your students’ experiences and knowledge around the topic:

Frogs by Gail Gibbons ISBN: 978-0823411344
YouTube Video of Frogs by Gail Gibbons– Read by Olivia Gerston with permission from Holiday House Publishers

Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons ISBN: 978-0823409099

Caterpillar to Butterfly (National Geographic Kids) by Laura Marsh ISBN: 978-1426315787

Step 3: Explain with an Educational Video

Metamorphosis: Change of Plans by PBS
(4:45 min.) @ https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource
/tdc02.sci.life.cyc.metamorph/metamorphosis-change-of-plans

Metamorphosis: Change of Plans by PBS
(4:45 min.) @ https://www.pbs
learningmedia.org/resource
/tdc02.sci.life.cyc.metamorph
/metamorphosis-change-of-plans

Life Cycle Video by MakeMeGenius.com
(4:26 min.) @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pHav-3QZkI

Life Cycle Video by MakeMeGenius.com
(4:26 min.)
@ https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=-pHav-3QZkI

Step 4: Elaborate with a Field Investigation in the Habitat Lab.

Students apply what they have learned as they investigate the topic in your Habitat Lab and record their real-world observations on their activity page:

Version #1:
Comparing the Life Cycle of An Animal to a Human

Version #2:
Comparing the Life Cycle of a Frog to a Human

Activity Tips

Review the Habitat Lab Rules with students before going outside.
Conduct this activity in the warmer months of spring and fall when wildlife is the most active and the students have the greatest opportunity to observe the full life cycle on animals using your school’s Habitat Lab for its habitat. Animals that you may be able to view at different stages of development include birds and their chicks in a nesting box, caterpillars and adult butterflies in your butterfly or pollinator habitat, or a frog/toad and its tadpoles in a pond.

Version #1 – Comparing Life Cycles: Comparing an Animal to a Human
Activity Page: PDF (as is) / Word Doc (editable)

Procedure
Indoor Discussion:

Students use the AWF’s Wonders of Wildlife webpages to research the Eastern bluebird, Monarch butterfly, Green anole, or Eastern chipmunk.
Have the students identify the animal and draw a picture of it on their activity page.
Then have them answer questions about the animal’s life cycle and draw and draw and label the animal’s life cycle on their activity page.

Outdoor Discovery:

Next, have them explore your Habitat Lab to find and observe the animal, putting a checkmark next to the life cycle stage(s) they find.

Indoor Discussion:

Afterward, have them draw a picture of themselves and answer questions about the human life cycle on their acivity page.
Finally have them draw and label the life cycle of a human.
Discuss the similarities and differences between the human life cycle compared to other animals.
Discuss the unique and diverse life cycles among animals and how they compare to humans including birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Version #2 – Comparing Life Cycles: Comparing a Frog to a Human
Activity Page: PDF (as is) / Word Doc (editable)

Procedure
Indoor Discussion:

Students use the AWF’s Wonders of Wildlife webpages to research the American bullfrog, Bronze frog, Cope’s gray tree frog, Fowler’s toad, or Southern toad.
Have the students identify the animal and draw a picture of it on their activity page.
Then have them answer questions about the animal’s life cycle and draw and draw and label the animal’s life cycle on their activity page.

Outdoor Discovery:

Next, have them explore your Habitat Lab to find and observe the animal, putting a checkmark next to the life cycle stage(s) they find.

Indoor Discussion:

Afterward, have them draw a picture of themselves and answer questions about the human life cycle on their acivity page.
Finally have them draw and label the life cycle of a human.
Discuss the similarities and differences between the human life cycle compared to other animals.
Discuss the unique and diverse life cycles among animals and how they compare to humans including birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Optional Extension:

Use the AWF’s Ecosystem Investigations: Frogs and Toads and Their Habitat Webpage to learn more about the Life Cycles and Habitat Needs of Alabama’s frogs and toads.

Wildlife Identification Resources:

Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources – Outdoor Alabama Watchable Wildlife @ https://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds @ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/
Bug Guide’s Insect Identification @ https://bugguide.net/
Alabama Butterfly Atlas @ http://www.alabama.butterflyatlas.usf.edu/
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southeast

Wildlife Identification Resources:

Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources – Outdoor Alabama Watchable Wildlife @ https://
www.outdooralabama.com
/watchable-wildlife
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds @ https://www.allabout
birds.org/
Bug Guide’s Insect Identification @
https://bugguide.net/
Alabama Butterfly Atlas @
http://www.alabama.
butterflyatlas.usf.edu/
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southeast

Step 5: Evaluate with an Assessment Activity

Review and assess the students’ observations and answers on their observation pages:

Answer Page #2 for a Frog

Evaluate the students’ understanding of the topic with the following assessment tools:

Have students research and draw the different stages of the life cycle of an organism not observed in the Habitat Lab using the assessment page below to help you assess your students’ level of understanding of the topic.
Comparing Life Cycles Assessment Pages:

Questions? Contact us.

FOLLOW US

JOIN/RENEW

SHOP

QUICK LINKS

HABITAT LEARNING LAB: