ALEX Classroom Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

In this lesson, students watch a video that explains how certain animals rely on their sense of hearing for survival. The video also explains how sounds are produced and how sound waves travel. Then students watch a video that illustrates how scientific inquiry was used to explore the mysterious hearing loss that plagues an Inuit Eskimo population. Finally, students discuss the structure and function of the human ear.

Students use scientific inquiry to understand how sound is generated, how animals hear, and the role hearing plays in survival.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

In these Hero Elementary activities, children learn about the way they can use their five senses to help them in everyday life. Children also think about the ways that animals use their five senses to survive. They name the body parts for each of their five senses.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (2) 7 :

7 ) Obtain information from literature and other media to illustrate that there are many different kinds of living things and that they exist in different places on land and in water (e.g., woodland, tundra, desert, rainforest, ocean, river).

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph mountain plants and animals in the Canadian Rockies, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about mountain ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to mountain life. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (2) 7 :

7 ) Obtain information from literature and other media to illustrate that there are many different kinds of living things and that they exist in different places on land and in water (e.g., woodland, tundra, desert, rainforest, ocean, river).

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph rainforest plants and animals in Borneo, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about rainforest ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to rainforest life. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (2) 7 :

7 ) Obtain information from literature and other media to illustrate that there are many different kinds of living things and that they exist in different places on land and in water (e.g., woodland, tundra, desert, rainforest, ocean, river).

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph desert plants and animals in the Australian outback, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about desert ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to desert life.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (2) 7 :

7 ) Obtain information from literature and other media to illustrate that there are many different kinds of living things and that they exist in different places on land and in water (e.g., woodland, tundra, desert, rainforest, ocean, river).

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph coastal mangrove plants and animals in Belize, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about coastal ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to coastal life. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 10 :

10 ) Obtain and communicate information explaining that humans have systems that interact with one another for digestion, respiration, circulation, excretion, movement, control, coordination, and protection from disease.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

The nose is your body’s instrument for smelling. Tiny pieces of matter are sucked into the nose and identified as smells. Nerve cells then tell your brain what you are smelling.

This resource presents a short slide show about how humans detect and interpret scents. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 10 :

10 ) Obtain and communicate information explaining that humans have systems that interact with one another for digestion, respiration, circulation, excretion, movement, control, coordination, and protection from disease.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

This is how you touch: Nerve cells throughout your body respond to external stimuli by sending nerve impulses to your brain. To put it another way, your skin’s nerve cells respond to the things you touch, allowing you to feel them.

This resource presents a short slide show about how humans interpret and respond to things they touch. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Join the Wild Kratts team as they discover the "sixth sense" that platypus's have: electroreception. The team explains that electroreception allows the platypus to sense electrical charges in the surrounding area and figure out what is in the environment.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Join Chris and Martin as they explore the ability of the Diamondback rattlesnake to detect its prey by seeing their body heat. Viewers learn that the Diamondback uses its pit organs as heat-detectors to find their warm-blooded prey.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Discover just how powerful a dog’s sense of smell can be in this video from NOVA: Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses. Fern, a trained sniffer dog, is put to the ultimate test: Can she locate a canister of meat hidden 20 feet underwater? As a passenger on a boat, Fern must determine the exact spot over which the canister was dropped in a lake. After about an hour of crisscrossing the lake, Fern successfully pinpoints the location. Canine smell is so acute because a dog’s nose splits the flow of incoming air into separate streams—with one dedicated solely to smell. A dog’s brain is also specially configured to make sense of the olfactory information it receives.

This resource is part of the NOVA Collection.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Rusty spotted cats are the smallest felines in the world, but these little cats have some extremely powerful senses. In this video from Super Cats: A NATURE Miniseries, students will learn how one tiny cat uses his senses to navigate the world around him. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and a hands-on activity where students use their sense of touch to help a rusty spotted cat find its way home.

For more resources from NATURE check out the collection page.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

A wounded seal swims slowly toward shore, while a shark patrols the water nearby, looking for an easy target. In this interactive feature from NOVA, understanding the six senses sharks use to locate and capture their prey may give you the edge you need to help the seal reach land safely.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

In this lesson, students consider how animals solve the problem of finding food, especially under harsh climatic conditions. They explore how a variety of animals use their senses to find food and how bees, in particular, communicate about food to other bees. Finally, student teams create a scavenger hunt for other teams with clues that require using different senses and that give information about the kind and quantity of food and its location.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

In this activity, students discuss the importance of senses and experiment using echolocation as an example. Students will understand that humans, animals, and robots use sensors to collect data from their environment and use that data to make decisions. They will also define the terms biomimicry and echolocation and explain how echolocation and sensors are used to collect data from an environment and can be applied to modern technology, like robots

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

In this activity, students make a meerkat model while identifying unique body characteristics. Students learn how adaptations are crucial to a meerkat's survival.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

[SC2015] LSC7 (7) 10 :

10 ) Use evidence and scientific reasoning to explain how characteristic animal behaviors (e.g., building nests to protect young from cold, herding to protect young from predators, attracting mates for breeding by producing special sounds and displaying colorful plumage, transferring pollen or seeds to create conditions for seed germination and growth) and specialized plant structures (e.g., flower brightness, nectar, and odor attracting birds that transfer pollen; hard outer shells on seeds providing protection prior to germination) affect the probability of successful reproduction of both animals and plants.

Students review what animal adaptations are, identify marine animal adaptations in a photo gallery, and predict how types of adaptations vary with ocean habitats.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (4) 11 :

11 ) Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

[ELA2021] (4) 20 :

20. Use details and examples from a text to indicate what the text explicitly states.

a. Interpret facts from an informational article, using details and examples from the text to explain the interpretation.

b. List the main questions answered by an informational article.

c. Categorize statements in an article or other informational text as fact or opinion and give reasons for each choice.

d. Explain the differences between primary and secondary sources, giving examples from texts.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can introduce students to the concept of animals responding to information received through their senses, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson.