Dragon Designer: 3rd Grade Science

Mar 11

Lesson Objective:

The project is designed to introduce and reinforce the key ideas of heredity for third graders concerning inheritance and variation of traits, as well as spark the creativity of young learners and strengthen their vocabulary of descriptive adjectives!

This activity works to achieve the New Jersey Student Learning Standard 3-LS3-1 for science learners in the third grade concerning heredity and the inheritance and variation of traits. The specific goal is to analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

This involves understanding that,

Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parent
Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information.

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Materials:

Four-sided dice layout (sides should include “Parent 1,” “Parent 2,” “Mix,” “?”)

Generic dragon tracer printout (optional)
Characteristic card cut-outs (divided by dragon part per sheet)
Coloring materials (e.g. markers, colored pencils, crayons, paint, etc.)
Scissors
Tape or glue
Poster or sheet of paper

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Pre-Activity Set-Up (for Parents and Teachers):

Cut out four-sided dice and construct by folding the outer triangles toward the center and taping/gluing the edges together so that the words are facing outward

Cut out the characteristics for each dragon part and separate them into two even piles for each parent
Divide each pile of characteristics/traits for each animal part into two even piles (one for each parent)

Each dragon part should have four traits per parent so up to four kids can create their own unique dragons!

Optional: Use dragon tracer template to lightly draw generic shape of dragon on student’s paper as a baseline guide for their creation

Activity:

Select a part of the dragon to begin designing! (eg. fur)

Roll the dice; whichever lands on determines the feature of that animal part. For instance, if the student rolls:

“Parent 1” → draw trait from Parent 1 pile (eg. spots)
“Parent 2” → draw trait from Parent 2 pile (eg. stripes)
“Mix” → combine Parent 1 and Parent 2 traits (eg. spots and stripes)
“?” → student creates their own design!

Repeat for each animal part until the dragon is complete!

Tips for Activity Execution!

Students are encouraged to say the characteristic they draw/color out loud to incorporate auditory skills

Encourage students to be creative when drawing the traits on the card, especially when rolling the “?” side!
They don’t have to copy the picture on the card exactly; the picture is merely a reference/clarification to link a visual to the word
When rolling “Mix” - if traits between parents seem to contradict (such as circle and square eyes), encourage students to think outside the box to integrate both characteristics! (i.e. switching between traits or creating their own “hybrid”)
If deciding to use the tracer, students can erase part of the outline to implement the traits they roll or make their project more creative/personal!

Post-Activity Reflection and Discussion:

Optional

Name dragon and explain reason for giving name
State/explain favorite feature of dragon

Share artwork and consider,

Summarize: Why does the dragon look the way that it does? What did we do to choose the trait of each part of the dragon?
Do the dragons look exactly like either or both of their parents?
What parts of the dragon are similar to parents? What parts are different?
If multiple players: Do everyone’s dragons look the same? What do all of the dragons have in common?

Practice the Coloring Confidence affirmation!

Learning More for Parents:

What is procedural learning?

In general, there are different systems that the brain uses to store information as long-term memory, including procedural learning, which involves understanding how a process works or how to complete a task, and declarative learning, which revolves around specific facts, events, and relationships (https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu).
There is research to suggest that dyslexia reflects deficits in implicit or procedural learning, which can be a risk factor for reading problems and understanding broader and less tangible concepts (Lum, J. A., Ullman, M. T., & Conti-Ramsden, G., 2013).

As such, it can be harder for younger students with dyslexia to grasp and memorize broader, less tangible concepts in science, such as heredity and the process of inheritance and variation of traits across a species, in which lessons are often textbook and reading-heavy.

However, deficits in procedural learning, including difficulties in visual processing, auditory processing, working memory, oral language, and motor funcion, have been observed in both children and adults with developmental dyslexia, the results declarative memory tasks tend to be much stronger. (Lum, J. A., Ullman, M. T., & Conti-Ramsden, G., 2013).

What you can do!

Recent studies indicate, “declarative memory may be able to compensate for procedural memory impairments,” meaning that students can still grasp typically less tangible science concepts by strengthening their declarative memory capabilities (Lum, J. A., Ullman, M. T., & Conti-Ramsden, G., 2013). Declarative memory can be strengthened through “extended training” or increased practice and exposure to events that follow a similar process, allowing for greater “declarative memory-based compensation” to support the progress of procedural learning.

As a result, it is highly encouraged to play the game with all of the dragon parts, as the repetition of rolling the dice, determining the dragon’s specific traits, and physically implementing these traits into the drawing can make the overall process of heredity an easier concept to grasp
In addition, it is also encouraged to perform the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic actions for each dragon trait in order to gain the most benefit from this project, as using art integration to incorporate more of the senses can enhance declarative memory capabilities.

Further, actually saying the words out loud can strengthen their comfortability with these descriptive adjectives and maybe even expand their vocabulary.