Cloud Forest Adaptations

Grade Level: 6-8

Introduction: Students will examine environmental factors that make surviving in an ecosystem difficult for organisms, focusing on the tropical montane cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica. The adaptations used by organisms to increase chances of survival in the forest will also be studied. Students will be divided into groups in which they use Canopy In The Clouds media to investigate a type of organism that lives within the cloud forest ecosystem. Students will become experts in elements of the ecosystem that threaten the survival of a species and corresponding adaptations. Student groups will then share their findings with the class in a presentation that includes Canopy In The Clouds media.

Objectives: Students will be able to 1) define adaptation 2) create lists of environmental factors that threaten the survival of organisms within the cloud forest 3) determine the adaptations that species have developed to face challenges 4) support findings with evidence from Canopy In The Clouds media.

National Science Standards: Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms, Scientific Inquiry

Time: 60 minutes (5 minutes for opening activity, 10 minutes for initial Canopy In The Clouds media viewing, 20 minutes for student group media viewing, 20 minutes for group preparation and presentations, 5 minutes for closing question)

Related Plans:

1. Life History of a Strange Tree: The Strangler Fig
2. What's a Niche?
3. Symbiosis, Mutualism, Parasitism and More
4. Cloud Forest Adaptations
5. Plant Defense
6. Animal Diversity
7. Living History Project