In this lesson, students will reflect briefly on different habitats and adaptations of animals that help them survive in those environments before diving into one specific example of animal adaptation -- the beaver. Students will learn about the behavioral and physical adaptations that help the beaver to survive and thrive in its river environment.  Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash.

Design a solution to a human problem by mimicking the structure and function of plants and/or animals and how they use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs. Define the problem by asking questions and gathering information, convey designs through sketches, drawings, or physical models, and compare and test designs. Examples could include a human wearing a jacket to mimic the fur of an animal or a webbed foot to design a better swimming fin.

In this instructional video, the Hogle Zoo explains how to use the lesson plan "Build a Beaver Dam 2.2.2 & 2.2.4."

By participating in this activity, students will:
• understand the benefits and problems with a human-made dam to an ecosystem
• understand the benefits and issues with the construction of a beaver-made dam to an ecosystem
• understand the adaptations and behavior of beavers in changing habitats
• use engineering skills to build a beaver dam
• understand the beneficial role beavers play in habitat construction for other animals, including people.

This is an interactive, second grade Nearpod lesson tied to SEEd standard 2.2.4. It guides students through information and activities about finding solutions to human problems mimicking the structure and function of plants or animals.
This resource is a student-ready, three-dimensional SEEd science lesson you can add to your Nearpod library. Many of the phenomena, text, and images come from UEN OER textbooks, Seedstorylines.org, ck12.org, and pixabay.com. Most videos are from youtube.com or pbslearningmedia.org. Many of the simulations were found at phet.colorado.edu, ck12.org, and pbslearningmedia.org. This lesson is unique to Nebo School District but was built with the help of many amazing ideas from teachers throughout Utah.

2nd Grade SEEd textbook for the 2022-2023 school year. This textbook was developed to align to the Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards. (Added: June 8, 2022)