Structures of Life
Investigation 3: Meet the Crayfish
Part 2
Crayfish Habitat
Students set up crayfish habitat and learn to care for and feed the crayfish.
3. Lesson set up and Management
1.2 Identify the parts of a system, how the parts go together, and how they depend on each other.
1.3.L.1 Recognize that living things need constant energy supplied from food or light and that in ecosystems, substances such as air, water, nutrients, and the chemicals in food are continually recycled.
2.1.5 Record and report observations, explanations, and conclusions using oral and written expression.
Crayfish require clean, cool water, food and space.
Behavior is what an animal does.
Habitat is where an animal lives.
Some animals claim a territory that they protect from other animals.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
1. Make sure student sheet No. 13 is in their packets.
2. Watch for molting crayfish and eggs. If you see this, remove the other crayfish until the molted crayfish has developed a hardened body. Read page 17 in Investigation 3, Part 2 for further information.
3. Your home is already set up if you did it in Lesson 1. This will save time for this lesson.
4. Make sure the water is kept cool. The crayfish will die if they are in too warm water.
5. You could include Part 3 of this investigation with this one to save time.
Student Management:
1. Keep all materials at the station at which the students are working. Let the students go to each workstation and explore.
2. Set rules and guidelines for observing the animals during non-science times.
3. Keep Moving! If you are constantly moving, it will keep everyone on task.
4. Watch for the child who may want to experiment inappropriately with the crayfish.
1. You can lengthen or shorten the time on any lesson.
2. Use pages 2 & 3 to help guide further inquiry at the end of every part.
3. If kids are afraid of touching crayfish, use 2 plastic spoons to scoop them up to place into the basins.
4. Give students time to discuss their observations with each other.
5. Keep word banks and content inquiry charts up so students can see and have more time to copy later, if needed. It's nice if you can keep them up all the time and just add to them as you go.
6. You may want to cover the crayfish during the night when no one is in the classroom. This will keep the crayfish in their homes and not wandering.
Writing:
1. Have students reflect on the day's lesson in their journal.
2. Start and finish each lesson with a KWLQ chart. ("What do I know?" "What do I want to know?" "What have I learned?" and "Are there any more questions to investigate?")
3. Have students write all word banks and inquiries in their journals.
4. Pretend you are a crayfish. Write a story about protecting your territory.
5. Write stories about a day in the life of a crayfish.
Reading:
1. Read FOSS Science story Answering Kids Questions: Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdaddy?
2. Check the Resources section of the teacher's guide for more reading suggestions, or the literature link on this site.