The Arizona STEM �Acceleration Project
2025
Create a Sonoran Desert Animal
3rd grade students combine real animal adaptations to create a fictional animal that would thrive in our unique environment
Linsey Poirier
The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project
Notes for teachers
This could easily be adapted to fit other grade level standards that look at other biomes.
We did this over about 6 days, one hour each day. Some students like to take their time on art projects, and they needed longer.
I read them Who Eats What before the food web creation, but it can be found as a read aloud here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXznO1b34Y0
List of Materials
Laptops
Basic art supplies
paper
scissors
colored pencils or markers etc
Standards
3.L1U1.5 Develop and use models to explain that plants and animals (including humans) have internal and external structures that serve various functions that aid in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. ● Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
3.L2U1.7 Develop and use system models to describe the flow of energy from the Sun to and among living organisms. ● The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants. Either way, they are “consumers.” ● Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants or plants parts and animals) and therefore operate as “decomposers.” Decomposition eventually restores (recycles) some materials back to the soil for plants to use. (3.L2U1.8) ● Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life.
Empowered Learner - Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
Knowledge Constructor - Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts, and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
Science and Engineering Practices
Objectives:
Students will combine existing animal adaptations, structures and features to create a new, fictional animal that would survive in the Sonoran Desert.
Students will access Google Classroom for the first time.
Students will take notes from videos that are relevant to the project.
Students will make food web demonstrating their understanding of interdependence of living things.
Agenda
Day 1 and 2- view videos accessible through Google Classroom to gather adaptations and notes. See link to the right for access to grade level appropriate videos as well as student descriptions of what to do.
Day 3 and 4- Draw and write about animals
Day 5- Create triarama and begin food web
Intro/Driving Question/Opening
Why do certain parts of the world have specific plants and animals?
What is special about our Arizona environment?
What are adaptations?
What animal adaptations could be combined to make a perfect, or at least really interesting, desert animal?
Hands-on Activity Instructions
I used this slide presentation throughout the week-
Assessment
Google Slides- See slides 9 and 10 for the criteria for the written paragraphs and the triarama.
Rubrics for both the writing and the triarama: Rubrics
.
Differentiation
Remediation
Extension/Enrichment
Use graphic organizers to guide note taking while watching videos
Partnering students
Modify writing expectations
How would this animal do in a different biome?
Sculpt the animal
How would your animal and another student’s animal interact with each other?