Week 4: Animal Superheroes

Many animals have senses that are very similar to ours. It’s easy to imagine how those animals experience the world. But some animals have senses that we can only dream about!

What does a snake taste in the air?

How do bees sense pollen in flowers?

How can Turkey Vultures smell from miles away?

Woaaaaah.

The lesson outlines for each day are below. On Monday, be sure to tune into the Facebook Live Video, but all of the other activities are optional. Try them all, try just some, it’s up to you!

HERE’S THE PDF DOWNLOAD FOR ALL OF THE LESSON DETAILS OF THIS WEEK.

Need extra ideas to keep kiddo busy? We’ve got you covered. Check out our Safer and Funner pages for more.

Monday

Super vision

1. Facebook Live Video: Carolyn kicks off camp with a video introducing the super-senses. Watch it live on our Facebook page at 1pm (the feed will start automatically). After the live lesson we’ll post the link here so you can watch it later.

2. Bouncing Colors: Wavelengths are awesome. Light moves through the air in the shape of a wave. These waves can be spread out and short, or tight and spiky. The light humans use to see is called the “visible spectrum”. This is the light that lets most humans see the colors of the rainbow. Other animals can see light outside of the range where humans see (birds, insects, and reptiles for example) and means that they may see different colors than we do. Let’s look a little deeper at how we see the colors we see.

   1. In order to see color, light needs to be shining on an object. When light shines, all the colors of the rainbow hit the object. Some colors are absorbed, while others bounce off. The color that bounces off is the color that we see. For example, if I were wearing a blue shirt, the blue light bounces off and the red, orange, yellow, green, purple light (and all the colors in between) are absorbed by the shirt.

   2. Choose an object in your home, and draw it. What color is it? Then, think about what colors are getting absorbed by the object and which are bouncing off.

3. Make Your Own Tiny Rainbow: Learn more about wavelengths, color, and water with this experiment from Generation Genius.

   1. Put a clear glass of water on the edge of a white piece of paper.

   2. Turn on a flashlight or the light on your phone, and shine it through the water in the glass and onto the paper at an angle.

   3. Try shining the light at different angles until you see a rainbow. Be patient and keep trying if you can’t get it! (Tip: Some glasses work better for this activity than others, so experiment on what works best for you at home!)

4. Watch: Take a few minutes to learn about the electromagnetic spectrum and light we can see in The Science of Light and Color. Next, take it a step further and learn about how our eyes and brains team up in How Do We See Color?

5. Scavenger Hunt- Thinking about Visual Perception: Although we may have the same organs for smelling, seeing, and touching, there is no real way to know if we are experiencing the exact same thing with our senses. This is because we all have different sense perceptions, meaning that we all have different sensory impressions about the world around us. A lot of the time, we organize these thoughts into groups that help us describe and understand them. This scavenger hunt will help you explore the way you perceive things. It is best to do this hunt with another person so you can compare or contrast what you find!

   1. Find something that you perceive as soft. Instead of thinking about texture, maybe think of colors, lines, or shapes that are soft to you (the colors buttery yellow or light blue or even grass bending gently is “soft“ to me).

   2. Find something that you perceive hard. Once again, think in terms of colors, lines, and shapes, such as the jagged edge of a rock, or for me, the color bright red.

   3. Find something that you perceive as wild (for me, wild can be lots of colors right next to each other or leaves all poking in different directions).

   4. Find something that you perceive as calm (I see colors that are similar to each other as calm, as well as a bunch of the same plants growing in one spot). 

6. Nature Journal: 

   1. We’ve already imagined how a bee would see a flower, but now we’re going to use what scientists know about how a bee’s eye works to draw what a bee might really see. (Is there a way to say “yellows look like this, and blues look like this, so that they can translate it?)

      1. We’ve also talked about how birds can see UV in the past, which would make the way that they see each other very different from the way we see them. How do you think one bird would see another?

1. Sit Spot: Start by checking in with your senses. What do you hear? Smell? Feel on your skin? See? Then, start using your imagination. Keep your eyes closed but pretend you can sense living things. What would it look like to you? Would you see everything just like with your eyes, or somehow different? Maybe you can feel movement with your skin. What would your skin feel like when a bee flies by? Or when a squirrel runs up a tree near you? Share your imaginings with a friend!

Tuesday

Super sound

1. Watch: Listen to the prairie dog language yourself in Sounding the Prairie Dog Alert System. Then, listen to the unique sounds of ruffed grouse drumming in Ruffed Grouse Drumming.

2. Creative: Prairie dogs don’t live in Wisconsin, but they’re still pretty cool. They have different squeaks - “words” - that they use to warn other members of their group when predators are there. They can identify coyotes, dogs, and humans, and could even describe the size, shape, color, and the speed of the threat! Come up with your own prairie dog-inspired squeak language and use it with your family or friends.

3. Drum Like Ruffed Grouse: In the Madison area, most of the bird sounds we are familiar with come from a sound made with a bird's voice. Did you know there are birds in Wisconsin that can make sound without using their voices? One bird, the American woodcock, creates a high-pitched whistling with their feathers when they fligh high for their mating display. Another bird, the ruffed grouse, makes their famous sound by drumming? No, not drumming with an instrument! By flapping their wings quickly and powerfully, the ruffed grouse make a deep thumping sound that they use to attract mates. Male ruffed grouse find an elevated rock or log stage to perform their drumming display, announcing their territory and their readiness for a mate. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a drumming ruffed grouse can flap their wings up to 50 times in just 8-10 seconds! Now that you’ve met our friend the ruffed grouse, let’s have a jam session!

   1. First, let’s see if you can match their drumming speed. Have someone time you for 10 seconds, and see how many times you can flap your “wings” in that time. Bonus points if you can find a log or a rock to drum on.

   2. Next, try to recreate their sound. The low, thumping sound of a ruffed grouse drumming actually comes from the sound of their wings creating a mini-vacuum of air. We may not be able to move our arms fast enough to create little sonic booms, but we can actually drum! Used cupped hands to copy the slow-then-quick tempo of grouse drumming on different surfaces and objects to see which matches up best. (Tip: try something hollow and tubular, like a paper towel roll or an oatmeal container/tube.)

4. Sound Hunt: Find a piece of paper and fold in half the long way (“hot dog”) and then fold it into thirds. Once you unfold it, you’ll have six different spots to write or draw about each sound in the hunt. Find...

   1. A sound that is loud

   2. A sound that is quiet

   3. A sound that is low-pitched

   4. A sound that is high-pitched

   5. A sound that is short

   6. A sound that goes on for a long time

1. Nature Journal: Think about the animal sounds you learned about today and pick your favorite. Draw a plus-sign on your nature journal page, dividing it into four parts. In one, draw or write about the sound you chose. In the second, draw or write something you wonder about that sound. In the third, draw or write about something that sound reminds you of. In the fourth, draw or write about the coolest part about this sound.

Wednesday

Super smellers

1. Watch: Learn how having a split tongue is an advantage for a snake in Why do snakes have a forked tongue?.

2. Smell Matching: Unlike many animals, humans often rely on our sense of sight before we think about using our sense of smell. Test how strong your sense of smell is by playing a matching game… with your nose! Ask a grownup for an even number of cotton balls. Then, dip or sprinkle one side of the cotton balls with a little bit of things that are easy to smell, making sure that each smell is on a pair of cotton balls. (The kitchen is a good place to look: spices, cooking extracts, or condiments are great for this activity.) Then, place the cotton balls smelly-side down on a plate. Trying to use only your sense of smell and not flipping them over, try to match up the cotton balls that smell alike. If you want more of a challenge, try and add more cotton balls/smells to the mix!

3. Stronger Steamy Smells: Watch the video about snake tongues first (above). Part of how the Jacobson’s organ/the vomeronasal organ (VNO) works is that it senses moist scent molecules. Snakes that are collecting drier scent from the air with their noses. Their tongues and their VNO allow them to smell more than if they only use their nose. Our own noses are better able to smell scents that are moist too! This is one reason why if you fart in the shower it smells stronger. Yuck! Let’s see if we can enhance our own nose a little by bringing smells into the shower! 

   1. If you’re doing this with friends/family you can wear a bathing suit OR take separate showers and share smell stories after you get out. 

   2. Find some things that are smelly. Smell them outside of the shower first, BEFORE you turn on the shower. Then, bring them into the shower and smell them again. Do they smell stronger? You might need to stick your head outside of the shower and take a few breaths to clear your nose between smells. 

   3. You could try fruit (orange, lemon, or lime are great choices), perfume, soaps (smell them outside of the shower first, then use them and smell them in the shower like normal)... you could also fart! 

   4. If you don’t want to use a shower or don’t have access to one, you could also try boiling water and putting it in a mug (like when you make tea) and passing the smelly thing over the steam. Make sure you have a grownup’s help for this! 

4. Scavenger Hunt: This is a scavenger hunt that has nothing to do with smell. You can draw or write about what you find, or just keep it all as a memory. Find something in nature: 

   1. That makes you smile

   2. That makes you feel calm

   3. That makes you nervous

   4. That makes you wonder

   5. That makes you laugh

   6. That makes you want to tell somebody ALL about it 

1. Nature Journal: Think about the things you have learned this week so far. What is the coolest animal fact you learned? What do you want to know even more about? Draw and write about it!

Thursday

Other Nature superpowers

1. Blubbering Up: Animals that live in colder climates have different adaptations to help keep themselves warm. Our native river otters have some of the most densely packed fur on the planet. This thick and coarse layer traps air bubbles between their skin and the water, acting as a layer of protection against the cold. Other aquatic mammals however, have a thick layer of fat called blubber that helps to keep their bodies warm in a similar way.

   1. Ask an adult if there is something in your home you can use as “blubber”. Shortening, Vaseline, or even any thick skin cream or lotion will do the trick. Fill a bowl with cold water, and submerge your hand in it. Then, cover your hand in a layer of “blubber”— have someone help you to keep from making a big mess! Then, dip your “blubber hand” into the same cold water. Does it feel as cold? Why do you think this is?

2. Watch: Does being a copycat pay off in the animal kingdom? Find out in Animal Tricksters! Then, learn more about multitasking birds in How Do Birds Sleep While Flying?.

3. Stronger Than You Think: Ants are known for being strong insects, able to lift objects much bigger than them. In the last few years, researchers have found that their special neck joints allow them to withstand up to 5,000 times their body weight, although this number is different for different species. In reality, ants are carrying things that weigh a lot less than this. It’s safe to say that ants are able to carry items 1,000 times their body weight (imagine an ant carrying a baby bird). Ask a grownup to help you weigh yourself, or to find out how much you weighed the last time you checked. Multiply this number by 1,000 (if you know how, practice doing this on paper or even mental math), and then look up things that weigh around that amount! What would you be able to carry if you had ant strength?

4. Daytime, Night Time: Many birds in Wisconsin migrate when the seasons change and resources run low. Some birds, like the red-winged blackbird, are short distance migrants who might only travel a couple hundred miles. Other birds, like the ruby-throated hummingbird, might travel thousands of miles during their migration journey and fly during the day and sleep at night. There are some birds that spend most of their lives flying and rarely ever come to land. Some birds who fly long distances are unihemispheric sleepers, which means they can let half of their brain sleep while the other half stays awake. Using the game Red Light, Green Light, we can explore why this is useful for long-distance migrants.

   1. With a group of family members or friends, have an adult be “it”. Everyone else will pretend to be a bird that sleeps at night. This means that when the adult  calls the word “daytime” everyone flies, but when the word “night time” is called, everyone must land and go to sleep. Set up your racetrack: everyone starts at the starting line, and flies in the same direction until they get to the finish line. 

   2. For round two, the same rules apply but everyone is now a unihemispheric sleeper. Everyone is able to fly at night time now, but they must do it with one eye closed and move much slower than a daytime-only flying bird.

   3. During round three, have at least one person be a unihemispheric sleeper and one person a daytime-only flyer. Who wins the race? How this round turns out depends a lot how quickly the adult shifts from day to night. 

5. Familiar Friends: Let’s do a scavenger hunt looking for some of the animal superheroes we’ve talked about this week. Maybe you can catch them flexing their superpowers! Can you find…

   1. A bee? Are they collecting pollen for the hive?

   2. A vulture soaring through the air, possibly sniffing out their next meal?

   3. An ant? Are they carrying something back to the nest?

   4. A moth, flitting around a light as the sun sets?

   5. A cat or a dog, sniffing around to gather information?

6. Nature Journal: 

   1. Today we learned about how ants can lift and carry things much heavier than they are. Write about a time that this would have been useful for you.

   2. Find something in nature that interests you. Draw it! Write down one thing you notice about it, one thing you wonder about it, and one thing that it reminds you of.

Friday

Wrap-Up Funstravaganza!

1. Build-A-Critter: Think about all of the amazing animal senses you’ve learned about this summer. Use what you’ve learned to imagine a made-up animal that you’d want to be. Choose any special senses you like, or even come up with one that might not exist in nature! Which senses would you pick? How would they help you find food, detect and escape predators, and stay safe? Draw or write all about this amazing imaginary creature you’ve created.

2. Watch: Chat about scat with SciShow in Name That Poop! Then head outside to see if you can ID the animal poop in your neighborhood. 

3. Color Scavenger Hunt: Use watercolor paint, colored pencil, or crayons to make blocks of color on a piece of paper. You can make circles or squares or rectangles, as long as you color them in. Try to fit at least 6-10 different color blocks on the front of your sheet, and more if you can fit them. When all your colors are marked out on your paper, bring it outside, along with a pen, pencil or marker. Now, look for those colors in nature! Once you find a color, write about the thing you found, draw it, or both. The thing you find can either be entirely that color (example: a bright yellow flower for yellow) or just have a tiny part with that color on it (example: you find a pink flower but it has a tiny bit of yellow in the middle for “yellow”). Were you able to find all the colors on your sheet?

4. Nature Journal: Divide a page in your journal into four sections, and answer one prompt in each:

   1. Who is the coolest animal you’ve learned about?

   2. What is the most amazing nature fact you’ve learned?

   3. What is something new you discovered on your own? Tip: think about the time you’ve spent in your sit spot or doing a scavenger hunt. 

   4. What is something you wonder about?

5. Sit Spot: Do one last sit spot. Think back about the first time you sat there, and all the things you noticed and wondered about. Now look, listen, smell, and touch while in your sit spot and think about all of the things you’ve learned since then. Amazing! Congratulations on growing as a scientist!

Banner photo: bee on bergamot by Johsua Mayer, Flickr Creative Commons