Module 17: Animal Cooperation- Science 3 - Course Guide

Module Overview:

In this module, students will learn to observe examples of animals working together, describe how elephants cooperate in a herd, describe how wolves cooperate in a pack, write a story to summarize how animals work together, describe how orcas cooperate in a pod, and construct an argument to support that animals work in groups to help them survive.

Module Materials:

Lesson # Lesson Title Material(s)
1 A Herd of Elephants hula hoop (optional);
2 A Pack of Wolves None
3 A Pod of Orcas None

Module Objectives:

Lesson # Lesson Title Objective(s)
1 A Herd of Elephants
  1. Observe examples of animals working together.
  2. Describe how elephants cooperate in a herd.
2 A Pack of Wolves
  1. Describe how wolves cooperate in a pack.
  2. Write a story to summarize how animals work together.
3 A Pod of Orcas
  1. Describe how orcas cooperate in a pod.
  2. Construct an argument to support that animals work in groups to help them survive.

Module Key Words:

Key Words
animal cooperation
elephants
wolves
whales
argument writing

Module Assignments:

Lesson # Lesson Title Page # Assignment Title
1 A Herd of Elephants 6 Observing Animal Cooperation Assignment
2 A Pack of Wolves 6 Animals Cooperate Assignment
3 A Pod of Orcas 7 Animal Cooperation Argument Assignment

Learning Coach Notes:

Lesson # Lesson Title Notes
1 A Herd of Elephants After completing this lesson, ask your student to name three things they learned from this lesson, and help them to look up more animals that cooperate with each other and share the information they learned.
2 A Pack of Wolves After completing this lesson, help your student do an internet search by typing in "How wolves saved Yellowstone Park". Have your student watch the videos or read the articles about it and when finished discuss the importance of individual animals to an ecosystem and how it relates to animal cooperation.
3 A Pod of Orcas After completing this lesson, ask your student to explain how orcas cooperate, and have them do further research on orcas to learn more about them.

Module Guiding Questions:

When a student starts a lesson ask them questions to check for prior knowledge and understanding and to review concepts being taught. At the end of the lesson ask the questions again to see if their answer changes.

Lesson Title Question
A Herd of Elephants
  1. How do elephants work together?
A Pack of Wolves
  1. How do wolves work together?
A Pod of Orcas
  1. How do orcas work together?

Module Video Questions:

When a student watches a video take time to ask them questions about what they watched. Suggested questions for the videos in this module are listed here. Suggestion: Have the student watch the entire video first all the way through. Then have them watch the video a second time, as they watch it pause the video and ask the questions.

Lesson Title Video Question

Module Suggested Read Aloud Books:

Take time to read to your student or have them read aloud to you. Read a different book each day. While reading the book point out concepts being taught. You may purchase these books or find them at your local library. Suggested things to discuss while reading the book:

  • What is the main idea?
  • What are three things new you learned?
  • How does this book relate to what you are learning about?

# Book Author Lexile Level
1 Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem Jude Isabella and Kim Smith
2 Wolves Seymour Simon
3 Orcas of the Salish Sea Mark Leiren-Young

Module Outing:

Take some time to apply what your student is learning to the real world. Suggested outings are below.

# Outing