Fun Bug Projects
Rotate each bug and zoom-in to see things you could never imagine.
Rotate and measure to determine proportions and correct shape.
Then pick your favorite insect for one of these projects:
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Identify Bugs Found in Backyard or Playground
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Hunt to see if you can find your favorite
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Catch some critters in a zip-loc bag
This is a great way to look close without getting bitten
Remove some air so you can flip the bug up-side-down
be sure to release the animals a few minutes later
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Take pictures with a phone or camera
Compare your pictures to each bug to find a match
Document where it was found on map
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Make a Bug Head Mask or Model
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Clay / Plasticine / play dough / styrofoam balls
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Balloon with felt pens
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Paper mache over a balloon
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Paper bag or pillow case with paint
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Face-off TV show
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Make Bug Wings
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Tracing Paper with raised wing ribs/bones
Rotate to and zoom-in on an insect's wing
Place tracing paper over computer screen
Draw wing outline and inside pattern with a pencil
Trace with white glue to leave a raised bead, sprinkle with sawdust
The next day raised bead the other side and cut outlines
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Cardboard mobile
Draw/color body and wings outline then cut out
Fold down center then hang from a string
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Wire outline (clothes hanger), stocking or cling wrap, pipe cleaner ribs
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Make Bug Claws
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cardboard, Plasticine, or pipe cleaners then test designs on:
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tree trunk
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glass window
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chair, desk leg
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Make a Bug Halloween Costume
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Put all of your creations together to make a great costume
Education Common Core United States
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Kindergarten
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Students are expected to develop understanding of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive and the relationship between their needs and where they live.
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K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
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K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
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First Grade - Life Sciences
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The performance expectations in first grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so that they can survive and grow? Students are also expected to develop understanding of how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs as well as how behaviors of parents and offspring help the offspring survive.
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1-LS1.A. Structure and Function: All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow. (1-LS1-1)
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1-LS1.D. Information Processing: Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive. Plants also respond to some external inputs. (1-LS1-1)
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1-LS3-1.LS3.B. Variation of Traits: Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways. (1-LS3-1)
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Second Grade - Life Sciences
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The performance expectations in second grade help students formulate answers to questions such as:” How many types of living things live in a place?” Students are expected to develop an understanding of what plants need to grow and how plants depend on animals for seed dispersal and pollination. Students are also expected to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
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2-LS2-2. Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.
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2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
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2-LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Plants depend on water and light to grow. (2-LS2-1) Plants depend on animals for pollination or to move their seeds around. (2-LS2-2)
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2-LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans: There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water. (2-LS4-1)
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Fourth Grade - Life Sciences
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The performance expectations in fourth grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “How do internal and external structures support the survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction of plants and animals?” Fourth graders are expected to develop an understanding that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
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4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
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4-LS1-2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
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4-LS1-1.LS1.A: Structure and Function: Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
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4-LS1-2.LS1.D: Information Processing: Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.
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Middles School – (Grades 6 to 8)
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
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The Performance Expectations in Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems help students formulate an answer to the question, “How do organisms interact with other organisms in the physical environment to obtain matter and energy?”
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MS-LS2-3.Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
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MS-LS2-4.:Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations
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MS-LS2-5.LS2.C: Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in Earth’s terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health.
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Middles School – From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
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The Performance Expectations in Structure, Function, and Information Processing help students formulate an answer to the question, “How do the structures of organisms contribute to life’s functions?” “How organisms gather and use information from the environment?”
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MS-LS1-4:Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
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Middles School – Engineering Design
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By the time students reach middle school they should have had numerous experiences in engineering design. The goal for middle school students is to define problems more precisely, to conduct a more thorough process of choosing the best solution, and to optimize the final design.
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MS-ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
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MS-ETS1-1.ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems: The more precisely a design task’s criteria and constraints can be defined, the more likely it is that the designed solution will be successful. Specification of constraints includes consideration of scientific principles and other relevant knowledge that are likely to limit possible solutions.
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MS-ETS1-2:Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
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MS-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
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MS-ETS1-4.:Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Education Core Concepts Canada
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Kindergarten
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The basic needs of plants and animals are observable through their features
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Competencies - make exploratory observations using their senses
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Concepts - features of local pants and animals that help them meet their basic needs
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Grade 1
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Living things have features and behaviours that help them survive
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Competencies
Demonstrate curiosity and a sense of wonder about the world
Make and record simple measurements using informal methods
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Concepts
The classification of living things (insects)
Structural features of living things in the local environment
Behavioural adaptations of animals in their area
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Grade 2
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All living things have a life cycle
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Competencies
Observe object and events in familiar contexts
Compare observations with predictions through discussion
Consider some consequences of their actions on the environment
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Concepts
Differences and similarities between offspring and parent
Metamorphic and non-metamorphic life cycles of different organisms
Objects move differently in/over/through different materials
(insects through air, land\soil, water, burrow through trees)
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Grade 3
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Classification organizes diverse organisms into groups based on their characteristics
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Competencies
Demonstrate curiosity about the natural world
Identify questions that can be investigated scientifically
Identify some simple implications of their and others' actions on the environment
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Concepts
Plants, animals, fungi in their local ecosystem
Food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids
Solids, liquids, and gasses as matter
(flight through gas/air, walking on water surface tension, swimming of insects)
Local water sources (insects found living there)
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Grade 4
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Living things sense and respond to stimuli in their environment
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Competencies
Make predictions based on prior knowledge
Consider ethical responsibilities when deciding how to conduct an experiment
Identify some simple implications of their and others' actions on the environment
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Concepts
The five senses (many insects have 2 compound eyes AND 3 ocelli lens eyes)
Voluntary and involuntary responses (swatting a fly, sound wave, ocelli)
The law of conservation of energy (falling ant, grasshopper jump)
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Grade 5
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Living things are comprised of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems
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Competencies
Demonstrate sustained curiosity about a scientific topic
Observe, measure, and record data, using appropriate tools, including digital technologies
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Concepts
Basic structures - Respiratory, circulatory, musculoskeletal, reproductive
(compare and contrast human systems to insects)
Simple machines mechanical advantage (grasshopper leg)
Annual seasons (mountain pine beetle survives winter, what happens to others?)
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Grade 6
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Multicellular organisms rely on internal systems to survive and interact with their environment
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Competencies
Identify questions to answer to problems to solve through scientific inquiry
Observe, measure, and record data, using appropriate tools, including digital technologies
Plan appropriate investigations to answer their questions
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Concepts
Basic structures - digestive, excretory
(compare and contrast human systems to insects)
Gravity - difference between mass and weight (measure/calculate volume of insect)
Gravity - effects on falling objects (ants falling from a tree)
Effects of the force of friction (fly feet gripping glass)
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Grade 7
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The theory of evolution by natural selection provides an explanation for the diversity of living things
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Competencies
Make observations aimed at identifying their own Q's about the natural world
Plan a range of investigation types, including field work and experiments
Observe, measure, and record data (biodiversity of backyards)
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Concepts
The theory of evolution, natural selection
Adaptive changes in species
Cyclical changes in the environment
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Grade 8
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The wave model can be used to account for the behaviour of light
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Competencies
Formulate alternative "if...then..." hypotheses based on their questions
Observe, measure, and record data using digital technologies
Use scientific understandings to identify relationships and draw conclusions
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Concepts
Optics - the type of images formed by convex and concave lenses
Many insects have 2 compound eyes, AND 3 ocelli lens eyes
How do they compare to glass lenses and type of focal plane (retina)
Sexual and asexual reproduction (some ants, wasps, and bees are asexual)
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Grade 9
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Humans live in constant interaction with micro-organisms
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Competencies
Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes
Field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data, digital technologies
Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions consistent with evidence
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Concepts
Viruses and bacteria (Malaria, West Nile, Lime, Chagas, spread by insects)
Microbiomes
leaf cutter ants grow fungi bacteria to digest the cellulose
Chagas disease is caused by a parasite from assassin bug
Carbon cycle - insects' role
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Grade 10
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Humans live in constant interaction with micro-organisms
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Competencies
Describe the relationship between scientific principles and technology
biomimicry of insect features in flight, armour, robotic exoskeletons
Use of technologies specific to investigative procedures and research
zoom-in and measure tool with accuracy of 2 micron
How science and technology affects individuals, society, and the environment
pesticide use, GMO genetically modified organisms, pollination
Identify the main points in a science related article or illustration
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Grade 11
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Biology 11
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Competencies
Adaptation & Evolution
Animal Biology (Arthropoda)
Ecology (food chains and webs)
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Physics 11
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Competencies
Optics - the type of images formed by convex and concave lenses
Many insects have 2 compound eyes, AND 3 ocelli lens eyes
How do they compare to glass lenses and type of focal plane (retina)
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Grade 12
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Biology 12
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Competencies
DNA - common with insects
Digestive system - Chagas disease from assassin bug
Ecology (food chains and webs)