Keywords: animal adaptations, endotherm, ectotherm, lab lesson plan, cold blooded, warm blooded, thermoregulation, environmental adaptations.

Lab: How Ectotherms Adapt to Their Environment

Purpose:
1. To determine which color, black or white, absorbs more light and, therefore, heats up faster.
2. To learn about a lizard color change adaptation.
3. To predict how skin color change can be a helpful adaptation.

Materials: 2 large test tubes (25 x 200), Black construction paper, Masking tape, White construction paper, Metric Ruler, Lab lamp, Test tube rack

In this lab, students will cover two large test tubes with either black paper or white paper. Water will be placed in each tube. The temperature will be monitored over a period of time to see the effect of an external light source on the temperature of the water. This very simple simulation is a great tool for demonstrating how ectothermic animals regulate their body temperatures.

Students will compile class data, average the class data, and then plot the data on a graph. This lab has a very good set of follow up questions to help students understand the differences between endothermic and ectothermic animals.

Your 5 page download will include a lab that is ready to be photocopied and passed out to your students. It will include: Title, Introduction, Purpose, Materials, Safety Precautions, Procedure, Observation Questions, and Data Tables. You can chose to have your students write their own lab reports or you can have them use the included Student Data Sheets on which they can record their data and answer the questions.

I have also included a Teacher Preparation Page. This will include pre-lab discussion, answers to all questions, and post lab follow up ideas.

You will receive both an editable Word document as well as a pdf form of the lab.

Amy Brown - Science Stuff