Individual and Class Activites

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Individual and Class Activities

Each of the thirteen activities listed below are projects that are suitable for individual students, groups within a class, and for whole class participation. All of the activities are designed to be modified by each teacher using them to best suite the needs and abilities of the students within his or her class.

Which Came First?
A number of species in the film are 'egg layers', but after the clutches are laid parenting strategies differ radically. Red tailed Hawks lay just a few eggs and "are hands on" (or wings on) parents. In crocodile families, fathers have no direct parenting role but the mother guards the eggs and young hatchlings. Gopher tortoises take no part in the lives of their young after the eggs are laid.

Have students pick two species of egg laying animals, either those covered in the film or other species of their own choosing (this could include insects, amphibians, fish or even egg laying mammals called monotremes), and research their behavior in printed sources and/or on the web. After researching the parenting strategies of the animals they have chosen students should compare their parenting strategies. This can be done in a standard report format but can be accomplished more creatively by students imaging themselves in the role of a parent. Taking on the parts of parents, they can either write a play wherein representatives of each species argue the relative merits of their child rearing practices, or keep "diaries" wherein the fictional parents record the period of offspring raising, from egg laying to the offspring becoming independent. An important element that these creative efforts should show is a clear understanding of methods that the species use to successfully (or unsuccessfully) raise the next generation.

After the class has completed their egg laying research groups can discuss and speculate about why individual species may have evolved the method they use. What are the advantages of the hands on parenting practiced by Red tailed Hawks? What are the benefits of the multiplicity of eggs laid by gopher tortoises?

Objective: understanding of various parenting strategies in nature, developing research skills, contrasting related qualities and behaviors in nature

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