Greater Cleveland Aquarium
Teacher Guide
Theme: Aquatic Animal Adaptations & Aquatic Habitats
Grade Band: 3-5
Program Length: 3 hours
Overview
Investigate how differences in aquatic environments affect animal life. Investigate aquatic
habitats and identify unique adaptations that allow fish to thrive. Discover how eels hide,
sharks swim constantly, and catfish find food in murky water. Students work in teams, using
the STEM model, to create a fish to live in a specific habitat.
Goal
Students understand how abiotic and biotic factors cause changes in the environment and that
these changes can lead to behavioral changes and physical adaptation to enable animals to
survive.
Standards
Grade
Strand
Topic
Content Statement
3
Earth and Space Earth’s Resources
Science
Earth’s nonliving resources have specific properties.
3
Life Science
Behavior, Growth and
Changes
Individuals of the same kind differ in their traits and
sometimes the differences give individuals an
advantage in surviving and reproducing.
3
Life Science
Behavior, Growth and
Changes
Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of
their adaptations for survival in their natural
environments.
4
Earth and Space Earth’s Surface
Science
Earth’s surface has specific characteristics and
landforms that can be identified.
Grade
Strand
Topic
Content Statement
4
Life Science
Earth’s Living History
Changes in an organism’s environment are
sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes
harmful.
5
Life Science
Interactions within
Ecosystems
Organisms perform a variety of roles in an
ecosystem.
Objectives
1. Students identify biotic and abiotic factors in four unique habitats; river, lake, open
ocean, and coral reef.
2. Students make observations of fish adaptations and analyze how those adaptations
enable the fish to survive in its habitat.
3. Students create a model fish using the STEM design process to demonstrate an
understanding of fish adaptations for a particular habitat.
Vocabulary
Habitat
Noodle Body
Mottled
Survival
Flat Bellied Body
Countershading
Adaptation
Tall Pancake Body
Observation
Open Ocean
Rocket Body
Biotic
Coral Reef
Upturned Mouth
Abiotic
Heterocercal Tail
Downturned Mouth
Physical Adaptation
Forked Tail
Gulping Mouth
Behavioral Adaptation
Rounded Tail
Terminal Mouth
Freshwater
Wedge Tail
Camouflage
Saltwater
Pre-Activities
Lessons to help prepare your students and enhance your field trip experience:
1. Student Research Notebooks
a. Divide your students into habitat research groups. Ideally, there will be 5 to 6
students per group. A group list worksheet can be found at the end of this
guide.
b. Assign each research group one of the three aquatic habitats: rivers & lakes,
coral reef, or open ocean. With a large class, you may have more than one
group assigned to each habitat (i.e. two coral reef groups).
c. Each student should receive a copy of a Student Research Notebook correlating
to the habitat group to which they are assigned.
i. Rivers & Lakes: http://greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/2016-2017-SRN-Lakes-Rivers.docx
ii. Coral Reef : http://greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/2016-2017-SRN-Coral-Reef.docx
iii. Open Ocean: http://greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/2016-2017-SRN-Open-Ocean.docx
d. Introduce the terms “biotic” or living, and “abiotic” or non-living. Have students
complete page 2 in their Student Research Notebook. Students are instructed to
draw a box or a circle around the factors in their habitat.
e. Spend time exploring the four aquatic habitats. Discuss differences between the
four. What makes a lake and river different from a coral reef? They have
different biotic and abiotic factors.
f. Introduce the term “adaptation” - a trait or characteristic that helps an organism
survive.
i. At the aquarium, we will study body shape, mouth shape, tail shape, and
color pattern.
g. Have the students complete the “Read – A – Fish Warm-Up” on page 3 in their
Student Research Notebook. Can they correctly identify each adaptation with a
clue?
h. The rest of the pages will be filled out during the aquarium guided tour. Please
have students bring their Research Notebook with them on the day of the visit.
2. Familiarize the students with the aquarium by viewing the aquarium map and by
visiting the Greater Cleveland Aquarium website: www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com
Post-Activities
Lessons for the classroom to help reinforce concepts from your field trip experience:
1. Have students self-evaluate the fish they built during their trip to the aquarium.
a. Do the adaptations they chose for their fish make sense?
b. What would they change if they could repeat the build-a-fish project?
2. Changes to the Environment.
a. Imagine that the biotic and abiotic factors in the aquatic habitats change. Sea
levels rise, corals bleach and lose their color, rivers become deeper and filled
with sediment from runoff, people litter the ocean with plastic, etc.
b. Have students journal about how their fish would be affected.
3. Build another animal in the classroom.
a. Have students design a fish for a second habitat. Compare and contrast the fish
from each.
b. Have students invent an invertebrate, build an insect, a mammal, a bird, etc.
Incorporate adaptions from real animals the students are familiar with and
combine the traits to invent a new species.
4. Build a habitat shadow box.
a. Students built a fish for their habitat; now have them build a habitat for their
fish. Create a shadow box or mural to visually portray the biotic and abiotic
features of the habitat they studied.
b. For ideas of how to create a shadow box:
i. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/36732553188202704/
ii. http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Animals/coralreefdiorama/co
ralreefdiorama.html
Additional Resources
River
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155760/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/habitats/River
Lake
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/habitats/Lake
http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/basicinfo.html
Open Ocean
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/habitats/Pelagic
http://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/ocean-habitat
Coral Reef
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/habitats/Reef
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/news/coral-reefs/?ar_a=1
Fish Adaptations
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/education/adapt/adapt.htm
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/portals/wildlife/pdfs/publications/id%20guides/pub5127.pdf
http://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/fishing-tips/anatomy/
Education Department
Greater Cleveland Aquarium
2000 Sycamore Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com
Aquatic Animal Adaptations
Habitat Group List
Group 1: Rivers & Lakes
Group 2: Coral Reef
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Group 3: Open Ocean
Group 4: Rivers & Lakes
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Aquatic Animal Adaptations
Habitat Group List
Group 5: Coral Reef
Group 6: Open Ocean
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Group 7: Rivers & Lakes
Group 8: Coral Reef
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Group 9: Open Ocean
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