Skulls

=Skull Study=

Essential Questions:

 * 1) How can one use observations of physical structures to make appropriate inferences of the habits of an animal?
 * 2) How can one determine the habits of an animal based on the structure of its skull?
 * 3) What is the relationship between form and function of mammalian skulls?

Content:
What each student should walk away with.

create an outline of the unit, lesson by lessonlinks to resources used in class, docs, websites, etc. How can one determine if a skull is the skull of a predator or prey species?How can one determine if a skull is the skull of an herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore?How can one determine how the animal bites and chews?How can one determine how the jaw moves?What are the different types of teeth, and what are their functions? What are the different positions of eye sockets? What is the purpose of each placement? Explore different postions of eye sockets and determine how the various positions indicate the predator/prey habits of an animal. Explore different types of teeth and determine how the shape and placement of each type of tooth indicates the food that the animal eats - herbi-, carni- or omnivore. Explore the different types of jaw attachment and determine how the movement of the jaw indicates how the animal chews and what it eats - herbi-, carni- or omnivore.

This unit provides practice in making and recording observations and using these observations to support inferences. With each skull, the task is to determine: 1) whether the animal was an herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore; and 2) if the animal was predator or prey

To support this work, there are activities to support critical thinking about how teeth and eyes work.

Skills:
 Observation Inference Dialectic Notebook Scientific Illustration

Assessment:
Skull Structures Visual Art/Illustration Label structures on a line drawing of a skull. Moodle Quiz