Animal Adaptations Fashion Show
Students will use what they have learned about animal survival and habitation to design and build their own “animals.” Students will be assigned a particular habitat and asked to determine what physical features would best help a living creature survive in that environment. They will first draw out their design and then face their next challenge; building a wearable model of their animal for our adaptation fashion show out of recyclable materials.
An example of a student design.Copyright 2022 Rebecca Butler, University of Florida MRET
Animals are studied for many different reasons by engineers. Often, environmental engineers are observing animals and their survival methods to see whether they will withstand growing ecological pressures. Animal adaptation is often also adopted and studied by biomedical engineers and materials engineers when thinking of ways to improve upon things such as tissue engineering, materials design, and ways to improve upon the human condition. Animals and their physical features have created many innovations in human history such as materials that imitate shark skin to shuck off unwanted barnacles or growth, cooling systems developed by observing termite habitats, and kingfisher bird beaks that inspired the shape of bullet trains.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define how an animal’s habitat affects its physical structure.
- Summarize how an animal's physical features help it meet its needs such as food and water.
- Analyze and measure data to design an animal suited to its assigned habitat.
- Identify which environment to which an animal is suited based on its identifying features.
- Employ the engineering design process to critically evaluate their creation.
- Use their creative and analytical skills to design their very own animal designed to meet the needs of their assigned habitat.
- Evaluate how animal adaptations can help humans design better ways to survive in harsh habitats.