Organisms
Lesson 8
Observing Guppies: How Do They Compare with the Snails?
Students are introduced to the second freshwater animal, the guppy. As in previous lessons they will observe, draw and describe this new organism, looking for similarities and differences between male and female guppies and begin comparing and contrasting the guppy and the snail.
3. Lesson set up and Management
SYSTEMS GLE 1.1.6 Understand characteristics of living organisms: identify observable characteristics of living organisms and observe and describe characteristics of living organisms.
SYSTEMS GLE 1.2.6 Know that living things are made of small parts: Observe and show how living things look different under a magnifier.
SYSTEMS GLE 1.3.8 Know that most living things need food, water, and air: observe and record that most living things need food, water, and air and observe and record or demonstrate that plants need light.
INQUIRY GLE 2.1.5 Understand how to record and report investigations, results, and explanations
INQUIRY GLE 2.2.2 Understand that observations and measurement are used by scientists to describe the world.
- Student will observe, draw and describe guppies to understand characteristics of animal organisms.
- Students will develop an understanding of what guppies and other animals need in order to live.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
- Have the three buckets that come with the kit about two thirds full of conditioned water.
- Guppies are more fragile that the other organisms in this unit. Alert the front office to tell you as soon as they arrive. When they arrive the guppies will be in two plastic bags, one with males and one with females. Open the tops of the bags and float each in a separate holding pale of conditioned water for 20 to 30 minutes. This will gradually equalize the temperature of the water in the bags with that of the water in the pail. Discard about a third of the water from the bags and replace it with water from the third bucket of conditioned water. Let the fish acclimate for about 15 minutes and repeat the process. This will help the fish adjust to the pH of the new water. After another 15 minutes slowly pour the fish and water from the bags into the two empty buckets of conditioned water. Keep males and females in separate buckets. Feed the fish one pinch of fish food, adding another pinch if they eat it immediately.
- Don’t give the guppies more food than they can eat in about 5 minutes. Take the time to make sure students understand this as they begin to feed the fish. This is one of the biggest problems…students put too much food in the aquariums.
- To transfer the guppies, one per cup, net the guppy and then gently overturn the net and float the guppy out.
- Each team of four students should receive one male in a cup and one female in another cup. Two student partners observe one guppy and then exchange with the other two partners in their group of four.
- The best way to introduce the guppies to the aquarium temperature is to have student gently float the observing cups in the aquarium for about 15 minutes.
Students add fish to aquariums.
Students observing fish in the group
aquarium.
Student Management:
- Each team of four students should receive one male in a cup and one female in another cup. Two student partners observe one guppy and then exchange with the other two partners in their group of four.
- Be sure to observe the guppies before they get introduced into the aquarium. They are too hard to see clearly once they are in the aquarium.
- Don't give the guppies more food than they can eat in about 5 minutes. Take the time to make sure students understand this as they begin to feed the fish. This is one of the biggest problems…students put too much food in the aquariums.
- Show an overhead of a labeled diagram of the male and female guppies such as is in the Organisms Teacher's Guide, Figure 8-1. Either show it before students observe or later in the lesson unit after students have observed and recorded observations. Point out the different characteristics of the two guppies and ask students to look again to see if they can observe these differences. This will enhance student observations beyond "one is little and one is big".
- Bulleted questions in the Organisms Teacher's Guide comprise a running dialogue from the teacher as students are observing. These questions will help students extend and focus their observations and include: What did you find out about the guppies? What are some words that describe the guppies? What are the guppies' bodies like? What did you find out about which body parts the guppies use to move? What did the guppies do while you were observing them? Why do you think one guppy is more colorful than the other?
- Time constraints may require that teachers split this lesson. If so a great place to split the lesson is after students have done their observations and before the class compares and contrasts the two freshwater animals.
- Teachers may have opted to have students use a box & T-chart rather than the Venn diagram as it gives more room to write and makes a more explicit comparison.
- Use a box & T-chart as a class recording chart rather than the complicated Venn diagram described in the teacher’s guide. The box & T-chart lends itself much more to writing a compare/contrast paragraph from the observed similarities and differences. It is also a lot easier logistically for the teacher….no assembly required.
- Spend some time discussing the needs of the guppy. This directly addresses GLEs 1.3.8
- If teachers have students record directly in the science notebook they could record observations about the guppy on the same page as observations about the snail to make comparison easier.
Students can draw and write about
guppies in science notebooks.
Writing Support:
- A tilapia makes a great fish print. Use a cloth material fixer with the acrylic paint to make a fish print shirt. At the end of the school year have a shirt signing day on the fish print shirts. Students can bring any color old tee shirt. You could also make the prints on white drawing paper. Then have students write about their fish print.
- Have students write a guppy concrete poem on the outline of the guppy. A concrete poem is one where the words of the poem follow and make the outline of the object.
Reading Support:
- Books, such as A Fish is a Fish…More or Less by Patricia C. McKissack make a nice read aloud for the class.
Math Support:
- Poll the class about their favorite fish to eat. Have students use tallies and group them in fives and ones as they enter their choice on the board. Then students can use grid paper and draw in x and y axes, label them and create a bar graph. Don’t forget to label the axes and name the graph.