Easy Animal Adaptation STEM Experiments For Kids

Blubber Gloves

Supplies:

• Crisco
• 4 sandwich sized ziplock plastic bags
  NOTE: You can use larger ones if you’d like
• Basin of water and ice

Experiment:

1. Make a “blubber glove” by turning one of the plastic bags inside out and, with your hand in the bag, grab a large handful of Crisco.
2. Put that bag holding the Crisco into a second bag so that the Crisco is between the two bags.
3. Zip the top of the bags together so that when you put your hand into it, you are NOT touching the Crisco, as it is between both bags.
4. Make a second “glove” with the other two bags (inner bag inside out – placed inside the second bag – zipped together) – put nothing inside the second “mitt” – it should remain empty.
5. Make a hypothesis.
6. What will happen when you put each hand into one of the “gloves” and place them into the ice water. Which hand gets cold faster? 

But Why!?

Crisco acts like the blubber found in many arctic animals. Crisco is made of vegetable oil but you could also use lard, which is animal fat, if you so choose. The fat insulates animals from the cold climate and the freezing water in the same way it insulates your hand in this experiment.

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Camouflage Critters 

Toothpicks in the grass
Skittles vs m&ms
Butterflies on wrapping paper

 

Toothpicks in the grass

Supplies:

• Colored toothpicks – 5 of each color
• Large area to drop them

Experiment:

1. Drop your toothpicks on the grass
2. Give yourself 10 seconds to find all of the toothpicks
3. Which color was it hardest to find?

Skittles vs. m&ms

Supplies:

• 10 each of every color Skittles and m&m
• Plate or a bowl

Experiment:

1. Put all 10 of one color skittles on a plate. This is your “Skittles patch.”
2. Add the mix of all m&ms into the plate.
3. Can you be a m&m monster and pick all of the m&ms out of the skittles patch?
4. Which color skittles were living in your patch?
5. Did you get all of the m&ms? Or did some get left behind because they were camouflaged by the same color skittles in the skittles patch?
6. Try it in a different color skittles patch and see if you get different results!

Gift Wrap Butterflies

Supplies:

• Wrapping paper/gift wrap
• 3 solid color pieces of paper
• 10×10 piece of the same gift wrapping paper
• 10×10 piece of each of the colored pieces of paper
• Cut out 3-5 butterfly shapes from each of the colored papers (including the gift wrap)  
  • You can use other shapes if you’d like (square, circle, heart, etc.)  
  • DO NOT cut the 10×10 pieces. They will be used as butterfly “habitats”.

Experiment:

1. Collect all of your butterflies
2. Drop them onto the 10×10 gift wrap paper
3. Set a timer for 10 seconds and see how many butterflies you can pick up.
4. Take notice of how many of each you were able to pick up.
5. Do it again on each of the other colored 10×10 papers.
6. What do you notice? 
7. Did you notice that on the papers that matched the color of the butterflies, those butterflies didn’t get “caught” as easily?
   Did you discover that they were able to hide from the prey better because… they were camouflaged!

But Why!?

Animals have adapted to survive as long as they can in hopes for their species to continue. Camouflage allows them to do this by being able to hide in plain sight!

Camouflage  works for both predators and prey! The prey can hide so the predator can’t find them and the predators can hide so they can sneak up on their prey.

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Best Beak Experimentation Stations

Create experimentation stations with different “bird beaks” and “food” where you can discover how birds adapt to eat the foods in their environments! What beaks work best for each kind of food?

Time to Experiment!

 

Station 1: Nectar

Food:

• • Water in a graduated cylinder
    (or other tall narrow container)

Beaks:

• • Shoestring
  • Medicine dropper or pipette (if you have one)
  • Sponge cut into a strip
  • Kitchen tongs
  • Slotted spoon

Challenge: Collect 10 ml of nectar

Which beak “tool” works best?

Station 2: Worms

Food:

• • Mix gummy worms in sand

Beaks:

• • A straw
  • Chopsticks
  • Wrench

Challenge: Remove all the gummy worms (make sure they’re buried after each trial)

Which beak “tool” works best?

Station 3: Flying Bugs

Food:

• • popped popcorn, tossed in the air by the experimenter or their helper

Beaks:

• • Tongs
  • Envelope
  • Chopsticks

Challenge: Capture 20 kernels while they are in the air

How many tries did it take to catch 20 kernels? Which beak “tool” works best?

 

But Why!?

Birds beaks have changed and adapted over many years to best catch the food in the bird’s habitat that the bird needs to survive.

If all of the birds’ beaks were exactly the same, all of the birds would compete to eat the same food and the food supply would run out of it pretty quickly. With beak adaptations, birds survive by being able to eat different diets.

Beak adaptations allow birds to eat unique foods and that means they don’t have to compete with each other for one food type.

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Vocabulary

adapt: to adjust and change

adaptation: to adjust or change to survive in an environment

blubber: a layer of fat under the skin of marine mammals that stores energy, acts as insulation, and aids in buoyancy 

NOTE: Polar bears are considered marine mammals because they depend on the ocean for their food and other habitat requirements!

camouflage:  a way for an animal to hide by visually looking like something else or blending into its surroundings

environment: living and non-living things all around us

habitat: where plants and animals live [a habitat requires: air, food, water, shelter, space]