Authentic Performance Activities facilitate a student’s understanding of a lesson’s usefulness in real life. They are also an Understanding by Design (UbD) assessment tool. Focus questions act as pre- and post-assessment indicators of the activity’s effectiveness.
Focus Questions:
1. Why do we learn about life cycles of animals and plants?
2. Can you think of any other jobs where knowing about the life cycles of animals might be helpful?
3. Can you think of any ways where knowing about the life cycles of animals could affect your home and property (pets and yard)?
Authentic Performance
Dr. Doubt has stated that bullfrogs don’t have any characteristic behaviors that increase the odds of reproduction compared to mammals, who expend a lot of energy caring for their offspring.
Your job, as an investigative zoologist, is to use an argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how bullfrogs use characteristic behaviors and specialized physical traits to increase the probability of reproductive success – and prove him wrong!
(Hint: Research the characteristic behaviors that help their reproductive success and list them below with your scientific reasoning. Produce visual aids as well, if they help prove your argument.)
