SKELETONS AND BONES
CONCEPT: “We have skeletons, and so do ants. We just keep our skeletons in different places.”
OBJECTIVE/ STANDARD: Introduce the word “skeleton” to the students and what it means. Students will find and feel their own skeleton underneath the skin. Using a magnifier, students will observe ants have their skeleton on the outside.
SKCS6. The Nature of Science: Students will understand the important features of the process of scientific inquiry. Students will apply the following to inquiry learning practices:
SKCS6.b. Tools such as rulers, magnifiers, and balance scales often give more information about things than can be obtained by just observing things without help.
MATERIALS: Scholastic’s The Human Body by Steve Setford, National Geographic Kids Ultimate Bug-opedia by Darlyne Murawski and Nancy Honovich, magnifiers, petri dishes, freeze dried ants, tweezers, plastic human bones, pencils, and a science notebook.
ADVANCED PREPARATIONS:
1. Go to a pet store to buy a container of freeze dried ants.
2. Bring in Scholastic’s The Human Body by Steve Setford, and National Geographic Kids Ultimate Bug-opedia by Darlyne Murawski and Nancy Honovich.
3. Go to a teacher supply store, or if close to October any retail store, to buy a few plastic human bones.
4. Place a few ants in the petri dishes.
5. Collect all materials and bring to classroom.
6. Set up a station where materials will be kept in the classroom.
7. Stage classroom.
PROCEDUER:
Motivating question: “Do ants have a skeleton?”
How to do it: On the front of the teacher’s desk place a magnifier next to a petri dish filled with a few ants. Put one plastic human bone behind the petri dish and magnifier. Place “The Human Body” and “Ultimate Bug-opedia” books in a very conspicuous place to grab the students’ attention. Arrange the desks into groups of three or four. When all the students have arrived and are sitting at their desks ask, “What is a skeleton?” Clarify what “skeleton” means to children who do not have an understanding of the word. Ask: “Do ants have a skeleton?” Write the answers that are given on the left side of the whiteboard. Ask: “Do you have a skeleton? How do you know? Where is it?” Write the answers that are given on the right side of the whiteboard. Again, ask: “Do ants have a skeleton?” If the answers change, write them on the whiteboard to update the knowledge of the class. Write down the hypothesis the class has come up with about an ants’ skeleton. Ask: “How can we find out if an ant has a skeleton, and if it has one, where is it?” If the students have not mentioned using the books, magnifiers, petri dishes, and plastic bones, suggest looking at one of the items staged in the classroom. Have the students pull out their science notebooks and copy the information from the whiteboard into the notebooks. Have one child from each group collect a petri dish, tweezer, and magnifiers from the science center. Make sure every student gets to look at and manipulate the ants in the petri dish. Let the groups of children rotate the books and plastic bones as they find answers to their questions. When the groups come up with an answer to the hypothesis, have them write it down in the science notebook. Once all the groups are ready, have one student from each group go to the whiteboard to write their answers. Have the class discuss each answer, correcting any misconceptions using the provided materials. This will ensure all students come up with the correct answer. Have the students write the correct answer in their science notebook. Leave the books, petri dishes, magnifiers, and plastic bones in the science center for future exploration.
EVALUATION:
1. Were the students interested in the activity?
2. Were the students willing to do the activity without much help?
3. Did the students talk about their hypotheses with one another?
4. Did the students make predictions about other insects, and creatures?
5. Did the students use words from the lesson in their play following the activity?
6. Did this lesson lead students to talk about other creatures and their possible skeletons?
7. Did this lesson create a desire to learn about other insects?
8. Was this lesson able to flow into another lesson allowing for connected, continuous learning?

EXTENSION:
1. What if we had a skeleton like an ant?
2. What if ants had a skeleton like us?
3. What if we had both types of skeleton?
4. What if we did not have a skeleton?

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