Description

Structure and Function Adaptations Unit. Students will learn that animal adaptations and plant adaptations include internal and external structures and that each structure serves a specific function. They will also learn about animal adaptations and plant adaptations including behavioral adaptations in animals. Students will be able to make a simple model (graphic organizer for this Included) to describe how animals receive information through their senses, process the information in their brain and they are able to respond to it. This complete unit fully addresses the Life Science Standards for 4th grade NGSS. This is a large unit with lots of activities. This is my most popular resource! SEE how to use Structure and Function for Fourth-Grade here.

This unit is based on the Disciplinary Core Idea: Molecules to Organisms: Structure and Processes, LS1.A Structure and Function

This resource includes three informative slideshow presentations on the following topics:

Structure and Function in Animals and Plants

How Animals Process Information

Parts of a Flower and Pollination

This resource includes a 3-page nonfiction article on elephants describing their external and internal structures and their function. This article promotes science literacy and is aligned with reading informational text standards for fourth grade.

This resource includes a hands-on lab with clear directions on how to dissect a flower, label the parts, and understand the function of each part. (All you need to provide is one flower for each group of students)

There are five lesson plans in this unit in the 5-E format. All of these lessons have response pages and worksheets that go with them. They include reading comprehension questions, lab pages, interactive notebook flaps, graphic organizers, and a layered book. Answer keys are included. This unit also starts and ends with the use of phenomena to engage students.

Students will also have the opportunity to use QR codes for some independent research on adaptations. Clickable links are provided if you do not have access to QR codes.

This unit is printable. If you are looking for an online unit on the same topic please seeStructure and Function Online Unit NGSS 4-LS1-1, NGSS 4-LS1-1 and Utah SEEd

This unit includes a true and false quiz for assessment.

The following NGSS standards are addressed:

NGSS 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

NGSS 4-LS1-2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

The 4-LS1-2. Is especially difficult to address and it is fully met through the activities in this unit.

For NGSS 4th Grade

Next Generation Science Standards

Utah SEEd

Standard 4.1.1 Construct an explanation from the evidence that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. Emphasize how structures support an organism’s survival in its environment and how internal and external structures of plants and animals vary within the same and across multiple Utah environments. Examples of structures could include thorns on a stem to prevent predation or gills on a fish to allow it to breathe underwater. (LS1.A)

Standard 4.1.2 Develop and use a model of a system to describe how animals receive different types of information from their environment through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information. Emphasize how animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions. Examples could include models that explain how animals sense and then respond to different aspects of their environment such as sounds, temperature, or smell. (LS1.D)