Cicada

📸 Photo Description

The video shows a cicada insect resting in green grass. Cicadas are known for their distinctive buzzing sounds and their long life cycles that often involve emerging from underground.

🔬 Scientific Phenomena

This video clip illustrates the "Anchoring Phenomenon" of organism life cycles and behaviors. At a fundamental level, the cicada is a living organism, and its presence in the grass signifies a stage in its life cycle. While this short clip doesn't show the entire life cycle, it provides a snapshot of an adult insect in its habitat. Cicadas are particularly interesting because of their dramatic emergence from the ground after many years as nymphs, their synchronized singing to attract mates, and their role in the ecosystem. This observation can lead to questions about what the cicada does, why it's there, and what happens before and after this moment.

📚 Core Science Concepts

1. Life Cycles: Organisms, like the cicada, go through different stages of life, including birth, growth, reproduction, and death. Cicadas have a unique and often very long life cycle, spending most of their lives underground before emerging as adults.

Pedagogical Tip: When discussing life cycles, encourage students to draw or model the different stages they know about for various animals, even if they don't know the full cycle for every organism.

1. Adaptations and Survival: The cicada’s body structure and behaviors are adaptations that help it survive. For example, its wings allow it to fly to find mates or escape predators, and its camouflage helps it blend into its surroundings.

UDL Suggestions: Provide visual aids such as diagrams of a cicada's anatomy or short video clips of cicadas in different life stages (e.g., emerging from the ground, flying, singing) to support diverse learners.

1. Ecosystem Role: Insects like cicadas play a role in their environment. They serve as food for other animals and can influence plant life through their feeding habits.
2. Behavior: The cicada’s presence in the grass is a behavior related to its survival and reproduction needs. Understanding animal behavior helps us understand how they interact with their environment.

🔍 Zoom In / Zoom Out Concepts

1. Zoom In: At a microscopic level, the cicada’s body is made of cells that carry out life functions. Its exoskeleton, made of chitin, provides protection, and its internal organs work together to digest food, process nutrients, and reproduce. Its complex eyes allow it to detect light and movement.
2. Zoom Out: The cicada is part of a larger ecosystem. Its emergence can impact the populations of predators like birds and mammals. Its songs are a significant sound in the environment, and its life cycle is tied to the health of the trees and soil where it lives.

🤔 Potential Student Misconceptions

• Misconception: All bugs look the same and behave the same.

Clarification: Insects, like cicadas, are very diverse. They have unique body parts, life cycles, and behaviors that help them survive in their specific habitats.

• Misconception: Insects just appear and disappear without a complex life process.

Clarification: Cicadas, for example, spend many years living underground as nymphs before emerging to reproduce and then die, demonstrating a long and specific life cycle.

• Misconception: Insects don't make any noise or their sounds are unimportant.

Clarification: Many insects, like cicadas, produce distinct sounds through specialized body parts. These sounds are crucial for communication, especially for attracting mates and warning predators.

🎓 NGSS Connections

• 3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
• 3-LS2-1: Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
• 3-LS4-2: Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
• 3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

💬 Discussion Questions

• What are some observable characteristics of the cicada in the video? (Bloom's: Remembering | DOK: 1 | SEP: Obtaining Evaluating and Communicating Information)
• Based on what you know about living things, what do you think the cicada might be doing in the grass? (Bloom's: Analyzing | DOK: 2 | SEP: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions)
• How might the cicada's appearance help it survive in its grassy habitat? (Bloom's: Analyzing | DOK: 2 | SEP: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions)
• If this cicada were part of a group, how might that group behavior help it survive? (Bloom's: Applying | DOK: 2 | SEP: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions)

📖 Vocabulary

• Cicada: A type of insect known for its loud buzzing sound and its long life cycle.
• Habitat: The natural home or environment where an animal or plant lives.
• Life Cycle: The series of changes an organism goes through during its life, from birth to death.
• Adaptation: A special feature or behavior that helps a living thing survive in its environment.
• Nymph: The immature form of an insect that looks like a smaller version of the adult but has not yet developed wings or reproductive organs.

🌡️ Extension Activities

1. Cicada Life Cycle Model: Have students create a model (diorama, drawing, or collage) showing the different stages of a cicada's life cycle, from egg to nymph to adult. They can research the duration of each stage.
2. Sound Exploration: Play different insect sounds (including cicada sounds) for students and have them describe the sounds. Discuss how animals use sound for communication, like finding mates or warning others.
3. Habitat Observation: Take students outside to observe the schoolyard habitat. Have them identify different plants and animals (insects, birds, etc.) and discuss how each organism is suited to live in that specific place.

🔗 Cross-Curricular Ideas

• ELA: Read books about cicadas or other insects and have students write their own stories or poems about the life of a cicada.
• Art: Have students draw or paint detailed illustrations of cicadas, focusing on their unique patterns and structures.
• Music: Explore the concept of sound and vibration. Students can experiment with making sounds using their own bodies or simple instruments, similar to how cicadas make noise.
• Social Studies: Discuss how different environments support different types of life, linking to geography and habitats.

🚀 STEM Career Connection

• Entomologist: Scientists who study insects. They might research cicada life cycles, behaviors, or their impact on ecosystems. (Estimated Average Annual Salary: $70,000 - $90,000)
• Zoologist: Scientists who study animals. They might study cicadas as part of a broader study of animal behavior or biodiversity. (Estimated Average Annual Salary: $70,000 - $90,000)
• Ecologist: Scientists who study how living things interact with each other and their environment. They might study the role of cicadas in food webs or their effect on plant life. (Estimated Average Annual Salary: $70,000 - $90,000)

📚 External Resources

• Children's Books:
• Are You a Cicada? by Judy Allen
• Cicadas by Seymour Simon
• The Cicada Summer by Peter F. Smith