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There's something fascinating about watching a tiny ant lift an enormous load and cart it off to places unknown. Now Sarah Albee tells us that there is much to learn as well. Students should find this Minute as compelling as watching ants on a summer afternoon. |
English/Language Arts
Explore lead sentences - speculative sentence starters
Author Albee starts this Minute with a speculative scenario, asking the reader to imagine themselves in a certain situation that she parallels to the topic at hand. Using this Minute as a model, ask your students to delve into their writer’s notebooks and pick a piece to revise by rewriting the lead as a speculative scenario.
STEM
Explore biology - animal adaptations
These leaf-cutting ants model an adaptive behaviors that are the hallmark of Darwin’s evolutionary principles. Have students discuss the benefits of the ant’s ability to quickly adapt to a change in their environmental situations. Find other examples of like adaptations in the animal world.
Explore engineering - using nature to design for humans
Humans look for solutions to challenges in the natural world, and this Minute explores a stellar example. Have students explore other examples. Check out these animal-inspired inventions or these plant-based designs. Check out the inspiration for velcro. Now for the real fun. Challenge your students to find something in the natural world and imagine something new inspired by how it functions. Hold an invention fair!
Research Skills
Explore questioning skills and strategies
Author Siy has given us a Minute that should have students asking lots of question. Take advantage and encourage the questions. Model how to write and ask researchable questions and how those are different from “right-there” or “thin” questions that may be useful for gathering data and building schema, but do not utilize students’ synthesizing skills. Students needs regular practice developing good questions. I, for one, am off to explore this idea of “distributed intelligence” - maybe I can make that work in my classroom!
Explore lead sentences - speculative sentence starters
Author Albee starts this Minute with a speculative scenario, asking the reader to imagine themselves in a certain situation that she parallels to the topic at hand. Using this Minute as a model, ask your students to delve into their writer’s notebooks and pick a piece to revise by rewriting the lead as a speculative scenario.
STEM
Explore biology - animal adaptations
These leaf-cutting ants model an adaptive behaviors that are the hallmark of Darwin’s evolutionary principles. Have students discuss the benefits of the ant’s ability to quickly adapt to a change in their environmental situations. Find other examples of like adaptations in the animal world.
Explore engineering - using nature to design for humans
Humans look for solutions to challenges in the natural world, and this Minute explores a stellar example. Have students explore other examples. Check out these animal-inspired inventions or these plant-based designs. Check out the inspiration for velcro. Now for the real fun. Challenge your students to find something in the natural world and imagine something new inspired by how it functions. Hold an invention fair!
Research Skills
Explore questioning skills and strategies
Author Siy has given us a Minute that should have students asking lots of question. Take advantage and encourage the questions. Model how to write and ask researchable questions and how those are different from “right-there” or “thin” questions that may be useful for gathering data and building schema, but do not utilize students’ synthesizing skills. Students needs regular practice developing good questions. I, for one, am off to explore this idea of “distributed intelligence” - maybe I can make that work in my classroom!
© Karen Sterling, 2017 - May be used for educational purposes without written permission
