Mississippi Science ZOO.9.10
The Standard
- ZOO.9
- Students will understand the structure and function of phylum Chordata, class Aves, and how they demonstrate the characteristics of living things.
Enrichment: Based on an understanding of biomimicry, use an engineering design process to develop a tool based on a bird’s beak/feet to meet a human need. *
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Phylum Chordata, Class Aves
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students choose a human task and study how a bird's beak or foot handles a similar task. They build a tool that uses that feature, test it, and revise it.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can show how curved hawk talons inspired the gripping parts of a litter grabber. They can report how many bottle caps it picked up in five tries and change the grip based on the results.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may copy a bird's shape without thinking about how it works. They may call a tool successful after one try or change its look without using test results.
How to Assess It
- Ask students to sketch a tool for picking up bottle caps without bending. Have them label the bird feature it copies, describe a five-try test, and name one change they would make if it dropped a cap.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build a claw from cardboard strips, string, and rubber bands, using hawk toes as a model; test five bottle-cap pickups and adjust the grip.
Show photos of a duck's webbed foot and a hawk's talons; ask which better guides a litter grabber and why.
Give pairs bird beak and foot photo cards and tool-job cards; match each feature to a job, then defend one match.
Show a store-bought reacher and ask students to sketch a hawk-toe grip change for picking up dropped keys without bending.
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