Mississippi Science ZOO.9.11
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.
Describe the parenting behavior used by different birds to incubate their eggs and care for hatchlings.
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 compare how different birds keep eggs warm and care for their young after hatching. They explain how those behaviors help eggs and chicks survive.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain that male emperor penguins warm eggs on their feet, mourning doves share incubation, and brush-turkeys use a warm mound. They can identify which hatchlings need parents to feed them and which can leave the nest soon after hatching.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think every bird sits on its eggs and feeds its hatchlings. They may also assume one parent does all the work, or that a brush-turkey warms its eggs with its body.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Compare an emperor penguin and a brush-turkey. What keeps each egg warm, and what care does each chick get after hatching?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build a penguin brood pouch with a sock and plastic egg, then model a brush-turkey mound with shredded paper over a warm water bottle.
Ask: Why does an emperor penguin guard its chick, while a brush-turkey chick walks away? Write one sentence about each chick's needs.
Give pairs emperor penguin, mourning dove, and brush-turkey cards; sort them by who incubates eggs and who feeds hatchlings.
Show a porch dove nest photo; have students draft a sign telling visitors how to avoid disturbing the parents and chicks.
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Printable ZOO.9.11 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- ZOO.9.12
Enrichment: Use an engineering design process to design and construct an incubator for hatching abandoned eggs. *
- ZOO.9.13
Explain the reasons for bird migration and the innate behavior of migratory birds.
- MAQ.7.4
Differentiate various life cycles found among animals (e.g., egg, tadpole, and adult stages of the amphibian life cycle; leathery eggs on land in reptiles; hard...
- ZOO.9.9
Demonstrate how different adaptations of the bird beak and feet allow them to feed and survive in different environments.
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