Online Learning Activities
Backyard Science: Animals, Adaptation, and the Galápagos Islands Activity
Scholastic offers six science experiments that challenge students to think like a scientist, flexing their research and reasoning skills.
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8, 9–12
As part of Scholastic’s “Animals, Adaptation, and the Galapagos Islands” project, these six “Backyard Science” learning activities show students how to get hands-on at home.
- Question Quest: Students brainstorm research questions about things that peaked their curiosity on a nature walk.
- Biodiversity Puzzler: Students create their own matching game using photos they took at a local park or nature reserve, and by writing their own clues.
- A Nature Treasure Map: Students hide a man-made object in nature, then create a treasure map to it, writing their own clues (each clue must include a description of a tree or plant).
- Fossil Hunt! offers tips on where to search for fossils locally, and how to become an adept fossil hunter.
- Take Action: Students learns how to help endangered animal species in their area, just as scientists at the Charles Darwin Foundation work to grow endangered species on the Galapagos Islands.
- Zoom In: Students make detailed sketches of leaves, birds, or bugs, then head to the local library to see if they can identify what they’ve sketched.
Learning Objectives
While participating in the “Backyard Science” activities, students will:
- Build scientific thinking skills as they follow a guided path of inquiry and analysis
- Strengthen research and critical reasoning skills as they gather, assess, and use data
Related Resources
With the help of audio, text, photos, and video, students thoroughly explore six science topics, from the Galapagos Islands to giant squid.
This three-level project, by Scholastic and the American Museum of Natural History, teaches students to think like Charles Darwin.
- Subjects:Research Skills, Heredity and Genetics, Maps and Globes, Animal Survival and Adaptation
