Animal Adaptations
by Pam Collinge
November 04, 2008
One of the goals in sixth grade science is to
help students understand that adaptations of organisms (changes in
structure, function, or behavior that accumulate over successive
generations) contribute to biodiversity. Students have
been working on an interactive website developed by the Lawrence
Hall of Science in California. The website is called “Build a
Fish” and asks students to select body structures and protective
coloration to create fish that can survive in different
habitats. 
After creating fish that
could survive in a kelp forest, coral reef, sandy beach, marsh, and
open ocean, students connect to the Monterey Bay Aquarium website
to watch videos of fish that really do exist in these
habitats. It is fun to see if the mouth, body, and tail
designs selected by the students compare to actual body structures
of the fish in the aquarium. Students have learned that
fossils of fish that lived over 530 million years ago are rare
because these animals had no hard parts. One of the oldest
known fossil chordates is called Pikaia. It comes from
British Columbia.
