Baby Animals

We're Matt and Kyndal. Whether they have fur or feathers, we love animals. When we went to the zoo in the springtime with our friend Danny, we noticed a lot of newborn animals. We knew they wouldn't stay small for long and were curious about which animal grows the fastest. For our DragonflyTV investigation, we tracked the growth of a chicken, a pig and a cow. Which do you think grew the fastest?

How would you investigate this question?
Decide what you're going to measure and how often you'll measure it. What does it mean to "grow faster?" How would you display your results? Describe your investigation in your notebook and discuss it with your teacher, or go to Baby Animals to learn what Matt, Kyndal and Danny discovered.

Do It, Get to It

Go ahead, open a can of worms!
Investigate how mealworms respond to different stimuli, such as touch, sound, light or scents. (Ask your teacher for help getting a supply of mealworms.) How do they react to light? Put a worm on a table, shine a light on it, and see if it turns to or away from the light. Or place a smelly piece of food next to a worm and see if it moves toward the food or away from it. Devise similar tests and track the worms' responses. After the testing is completed, watch the mealworm metamorphose into a beetle. What differences do you notice about how the mealworm and the beetle respond to those stimuli? Can you explain why they would be different?

Take it Outside

Bird Brains
Set up three bird feeders near a window, and fill them each with a different type
of feed, such as sunflower seeds, cracked corn, and millet. Track what kinds of birds
(and other creatures!) visit which feeders. Does weather make a difference?
What other factors affect how many birds come to your feeders? If you want to participate in a national study of birds, visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Web site.