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Teacher’s Guide: Episode 2

Coloration

Junior Naturalist Patrice explains how coloration is a structural adaptation that helps animals and plants survive in their environment. She joins Senior Naturalist Dave Erler to examine the coloration of the great horned owl. We take an up-close look at the skunk. Von and Marrissa visit with wildlife photographer John Green and learn how color plays a role in photography.
  • Program Objectives

Students will:

  1. Analyze how structural
    adaptations help organisms survive.
  2. Identify coloration as a structural adaptation.
  3. Give examples of coloration in living organisms.
  4. List and describe different types of coloration. i.e. deceptive, mimicry, camouflage, advertising, countershading.
  5. Recognize the distinct characteristics of the great horned owl and the striped skunk.
  6. Describe adaptations exhibited by the great horned owl and the striped skunk.
  • Pre-Viewing Activities
  1. Have students name some
    animals and plants with unusual coloration and discuss how that coloration
    might help the them survive.
  2. Have students name some ways color is used in human environments for warning, attracting and to camouflage or mimic.
  • Post-Viewing Activities
  1. Have students make a list of animals that use:
    Counter Shading
    Advertising Coloration
    Camouflage
    Mimicry
    Then have them choose one of those animals and research it further.
  2. Give students an outline of a butterfly. Explain that the classroom is the butterfly’s habitat. Have them design an unique coloration pattern for their butterfly and write a brief paragraph explaining how the coloration of their butterfly helps it survive in the classroom environment.
  3. Take a nature walk with your students and have them observe plants and animals and take notes about their coloration.
  • Hands On: Trials of the Toothpick Bird

Trials of the Toothpick Bird

  • colored toothpicks
  • grassy area
  • recording sheets
  • Tell the students that they are testing which color tooth-pick would survive the best in a grassy environment. The students are to play the part of the rare toothpick bird.
  • Mark off a grassy area. Distribute an equal of each color toothpicks on the grass. Give the students 15 seconds to find as many of the toothpicks as they can. Record the number of toothpicks “eaten” for each color. Which color was the most vulnerable to the toothpick bird? Which one was the best protected?

Note: You can do this activity as a whole class, or you can break the class into small groups.

But We Can’t Go Outside!
If you can’t go outside to do this activity, or if you don’t have a grassy area, you can replicate the activity by distributing a sheets of newspaper to each student and sprinkling colored confetti and cut-up newspaper. Make sure there is an equal number of each!

Vocabulary

  • Adaptation
  • Mimicry
  • Structural
  • Deceptive Coloration
  • Coloration
  • Counter Shading
  • Camouflage
  • Advertising Coloration
  • Pollination
  • Scent Gland
Coloration Teacher’s Guide Quiz

Additional Resources

Books

Animal Hide-And-Seek(Bank Street Ready-To-Read, Level 2) by Teddy Slater, illustrated by Donna Braginetz
ISBN: 0553375814
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell
Pub. Date: March 1997
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
This book explores how animals use camouflage to hide.

Animal Dazzlers: The Role of Brilliant Colors in Nature by Sneed B. Collard
ISBN: 053120362X
Publisher: Watts Franklin
Pub. Date: September 1998
Reading Level: Ages 9 to 11
This book reviews the role of bright colors in nature.

Animals Brightly Coloredby Phyllis Limbacher Tildes
ISBN: 0881069779
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Pub. Date: March 1998
Reading Level: Ages 5 to 9
This book is arranged as a guessing game. Clues are given and the reader has to figure out what the animal is.

Bold and Bright, Black-and-White Animalsby Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, illustrated by Kendahl Jubb
ISBN: 0802786723
Publisher: Walker & Company
Pub. Date: September 1998
Reading Level: Ages 5 to 9
Find out more about animals with black and white patterns and how those patterns help them survive.

How to Hide a Butterfly & Other Insects by Ruth Heller
ISBN: 044840477X
Publisher: Stern Sloan
Pub. Date: April 1992
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Find out how insects use camouflage.

How to Hide a Crocodile & Other Reptilesby Ruth Heller
ISBN: 0448402157
Publisher: Stern Sloan
Pub. Date: October 1994
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Find out how crocodiles, turtles, and iguanas use camouflage.

How to Hide a Meadow Frog and Other Amphibiansby Ruth Heller
ISBN: 0448409658
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Pub. Date: July 1995
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Find out how amphibians like toads and salamanders use camouflage to “disappear.”

How to Hide a Parakeet & Other Birds by Ruth Heller
ISBN: 044840964X
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Pub. Date: July 1995
Reading Level: Ages 4-8

How to Hide a Polar Bear & Other Mammalsby Ruth Heller
ISBN: 0448402165
Publisher: Stern Sloan
Pub. Date: October 1994
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Find out how mammals like the deer, zebra, and polar bear use camouflage.

Nature’s Paintbrush: The Patterns and Colors Around You by Susan Stockdale
ISBN: 0689810814
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date: May 1999
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
This book looks at colors and patterns in the natural world.

Searchin’ Safari : Looking for Camouflaged Creatures by Marc Nadel, illustrated by Jeff O’Hare
ISBN: 1563978172
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Pub. Date: October 1999
Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Darwinsim and Its Data: The Adaptive Coloration of Animals by Muriel L. Blaisdell
ISBN: 0824072537
Publisher: Garland Publishing, Incorporated
Pub. Date: January 1992
Reading Level: Adult
This book addresses the coloration of animals, and in particular mimicry.

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