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This lesson encourages students to use what they have learned about animals and seed dispersal to create an animal out of various materials that can hold and disperse a given amount of seed.

This formative assessment probe originally appeared in Uncovering Student Ideas in Science (Keeley, P., F. Eberle, and C. Dorsey. 2008. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press ). In this Science and Children article, Page Keeley outlines various ways it might be used in the classroom to identify and correct student misconceptions and to promote discourse. This probe asks students to identify organisms that have ...

Students explore physical structures and adaptations of insects to discover a wide range of insect diversity within habitats. Then students use what they have learned to create an insect with physical structures and capabilities to survive in a specified habitat. The lesson suggests a 120 minute session but can be broken down to accommodate younger learners and attention spans.