Students investigate the essential question, “How do plant and animal structures help living things survive in their habitats?” through a Structure Safari, local-habitat observations, and input from the Humane Society and Birch Aquarium. They compare internal and external structures, model how animals sense, process, and respond to information, and explain how structures support survival, growth, behavior, or reproduction. Partner talks and critique strengthen observation claims, respectful listening, collaboration, and revision. Students use notes and reflections to create a claim-evidence-reasoning display and paired plant-animal model station for a Survival Structure Gallery Walk with peers and community partners.

Students will observe and compare internal and external plant and animal structures in local habitats, explaining how their functions support survival, growth, behavior, reproduction, and matter and energy flow. Students will use models to show how animals receive sensory information, process it in the brain, and respond, while considering how structures help organisms adapt to their habitats. Students will construct and revise a claim-evidence-reasoning explanation using observation notes, partner reflections, and evidence from paired plant-and-animal structure models. Students will collaborate, listen respectfully, share decisions, and communicate their learning through model stations and a gallery walk with peers, the Humane Society, and Birch Aquarium.

Students create Structure Safari observation notes, partner-talk reflections, and revised claims using the terms internal, external, structure, and function. Teams then build paired model stations showing how one plant structure and one animal structure support survival, growth, behavior, or reproduction in a local habitat; the animal model also traces sensory information from sense organ to brain to response. Each student completes a claim-evidence-reasoning poster or digital slide using observation notes and reflections as evidence. For the Survival Structure Gallery Walk, students present their models and CER work while peers and guests from the Humane Society and Birch Aquarium leave questions and compliments.

Launch with a Structure Safari trail featuring photos, safe touchable models, sound clips, and mystery clues from local habitats, including examples contributed by the Humane Society and Birch Aquarium. Partners record one internal or external plant or animal structure, infer its function in survival, growth, behavior, or reproduction, and consider how an animal senses and responds to habitat information. After each observation, partners share one noticed structure, one question, and one respectful listening skill, then revise one claim using clearer evidence. Introduce the essential question and preview the Survival Structure Gallery Walk, where students will exhibit paired models, observation notes, and a claim-evidence-reasoning poster or slide for peer and community-partner feedback.

Host a Survival Structure Gallery Walk for peers, families, and invited partners from the Humane Society and Birch Aquarium. Student teams present paired plant-and-animal model stations, observation notes, partner-talk reflections, and a claim-evidence-reasoning poster or slide showing how internal and external structures—including animal sensory structures—support survival, growth, behavior, or reproduction in a chosen habitat. Before opening, partners critique and revise one structure claim for clearer evidence and reasoning connected to the question, “How do plant and animal structures help living things survive in their habitats?” Guests rotate through stations, ask questions, and leave sticky-note compliments and feedback, while students share speaking, modeling, and welcoming roles.