Grade level
Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Developing and using models
LS4.C: Adaptation
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
Students created their final model drawn models that showed their thinking across each of the activities of the storyline. Prior to making the final models, the class developed a “Gotta Haves” list that indicated what aspects of the phenomenon that all students had to attempt to explain in their model. Students were encouraged to use keywords and vocabulary to label and illustrate how the beetle survives in the Namib desert and how they are able to gather water.
In the last investigation prior to the drawing of the final models, students explored hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties and they were given information that the beetle shells had areas of hydrophobic surfaces. We see students apply these concepts in their models and shift their thinking from the beetles digging their heads in the sand as a means to drink water to digging their heads in the sand to position their bodies to catch water vapor from the air. In Sample A, we see the student show that water vapor is in the fog and that there is hydrophobic texture on the beetle’s shell that causes the water to move in a particular way so that it accumulates and is available for the beetle to drink. Sample B similarly identified the water in the fog and also notes the hydrophobic shell allows water to collect that can then be directed to the beetle’s mouth.
