Summary Students closely observe wood bugs and their body parts, and learn about their life as a crustacean on land. Science content Biology: Features, Adaptations of Living Things (K, 1, 3, 7) Biology: Classification of Living Things, Biodiversity (1, 3) Biology: Food Webs, Ecosystems, Biomes (3, 4) Biology: Sensing, Organ Systems (4, 5, 6) Lessons activity is in Wood bugs: investigate their needs to make a habitat What lives in our local park or garden? Biomes Features and Needs of living things (animals) Materials wood bugs, one per student either: small petri dish lined with dampened paper towel for each wood bug, and a magnifier, for each student or: box magnifiers lined with dampened paper towel for each wood bug, for each student Procedure Set-up prior to experiment: a box magnifier or small clear dish, the bottom lined with damp tissue and containing a live wood bug, for each student. For biomes lesson, keep wood bugs in their habitat, and provide magnifiers. If using them, show students how to use magnifiers. Keeping the wood bug sealed in the container, students look at them closely, and draw what they see (not what they think they should see). Sometimes they will see a feature that they don't know what it is, but that is OK. Class discussion, led by what students notice. Points to include: colour, body parts of wood bugs, and how each of these might help the wood bugs survive. Wood bug information: They are a colour that makes them well camouflaged in the dark brown and grey places they are often found. Wood bugs have 14 legs - they are crustaceans. Wood bugs have antennae for feeling around and smelling. They have an exoskeleton to protect them, which is segmented. Only some wood bug species are able to roll into a ball. Wood bugs are closely related to (and evolved from) ocean-living crustaceans such as shrimp (thought to have colonised land in the Carboniferous period). Like the ocean animals they are related to, they have gills - using them to extract oxygen from water (the gills are the flat white structures underneath near the tail). Because of this, they always need to be in a moist environment, and will die fast if they dry out. They are decomposers, an important animal in food chains, eating dead plant and animal matter and turning it into soil. More info: https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-pillbugs-4165294 Video about pillbug evolution from ocean crustaceans: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/pill-bugs-emerged-sea-conquer-earth also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj8pFX9SOXE Sometimes the eggs under the female can even be seen. For my lessons, I believe I found wood bugs from these three families: Armadillidiidae (pill bugs, which roll into a ball), Oniscidae and Porcellionidae. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbug General information on wood bugs, including photos. Wood bug images (including babies) in this article: https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/Armadillidium_vulgare.htm Wood bug moulting images: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Molting-A-Armadillidium-vulgare-aft… Vocabulary: wood bug: a familiar animal with 14 legs and a hard exoskeleton; a crustacean that lives on land crustacean: a large group of animals, segmented with an exoskeleton, mostly aquatic (e.g. shrimp, crab) exoskeleton: an outer protective shell, found on animals that do not have bones antennae: feelers at the front of the body, used for feeling and smelling surroundings habitat: a place for a living thing to live Attached documents Wood bug information.pdf Grades taught Gr K Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 4 Gr 5
