Great Site: Teach Animal Adaptations

In the last twenty years, the internet has drastically changed the way we do daily life, from how we shop to how we stay informed and connected. As teachers, the web can be an incredible source of great ideas and helpful sites....but it can also be very time-consuming finding the sites that are the most helpful. During this series, I will be doing that research for you and highlighting some of the best websites out there for teachers.

UPDATED 2019: It appears that this site is no longer active :( If anyone knows of a current link that works, please let us all know!


Today's Featured Site:

Build Your Wild Self is a fun activity hosted by the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Zoos and Aquariums (what a mouthful!). It allows you to design your own 'wild self' by choosing different animal features to add to your body. Each feature is something that helps an animal adapt to it's surroundings. Here's mine:

So....apparently, I am going to be really good at flying, jumping up high, and fighting other reindeer. Hmm...this could come in handy in my real life ;)

I love this little tool because I can see it being a fun mini-project to end a unit on adaptation. Each student could design their own 'creature' and give a little presentation (or write a little essay) about how each feature allows his or her creature to adapt to their surroundings.

(NOTE: I used the screen shot function on my key board to capture this picture of my creature. You can also email it to an account. To take a screen shot, just press the PRINT SCREEN button on a PC or command + shift + 4 on a Mac.)

Have you ever used this site before? What did you think? We'd love to hear your feedback!