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Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists

Experience is the best teacher

  • Log In
  • Home
  • What We Do
    • Conservation
    • School Programs
    • The Canyon Classroom
    • Walks, Hikes, and Demos
  • Canyon Life
    • Insects
    • Birds
    • Fish, Amphibians & Reptiles
    • Mammals
    • Plants
  • Calendar
  • Become a Naturalist
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Now You See It

Now You See It

Students discover how predators and prey hunt, hide and survive.

(Recommended for grades 1 & 2)

  • Summary
  • Core Standards
  • Teacher Resources
  • Schedule a Trip

NYSI allows students to discover how predators and prey use characteristics, adaptations and behaviors such as camouflage, mimicry, coloration, and protective stillness to hunt, hide and survive.

Students hide and hunt selected animal models and learn the importance of predator-prey relationships.

Students are encouraged to communicate ways that changes in environment and habitat can affect these relationships.

This activity is recommended for grades 1 & 2

  • Grade 1
  • Grade 2
  • Grade 3

Download & Print – NYSI – Grade 1 Standards

Life Science

Students develop an understanding that Earth has supported, and continues to support, a large variety of organisms. These organisms can be distinguished by their physical characteristics, life cycles, and their different resource needs for survival. Different types of organisms live where there are different earth resources such as food, air, and water.

Core Ideas:

  • • L1: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.
  • • L2: Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms.
  • • L3: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
  • • L4: The unity and diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Standards:

  • 1.L2U1.7 – Develop and use models about how living things use resources to grow and survive; design and evaluate habitats for organisms using earth materials.
  • 1.L2U1.8 – Construct and explanation describing how organisms obtain resources from the environment including materials that are used again by other organisms.
  • 1.L4U3.11 – Ask questions and explain how factors can cause species to go extinct.

Social Studies

The content areas of civics, economics, geography, history, and disciplinary skills and processes.

Standards:

  • 1.SP3.5 – Ask and answer questions about explanations given.
  • 1.C1.2 – Follow agreed upon rules for discussions when responding to others and making decisions including consensus building procedures.
  • 1.C1.3 – Compare one’s own thoughts and opinions with others’ perspectives.

Download & Print – NYSI – Grade 2 Standards

Life Science

Students develop and understanding that life on Earth depends on energy from the Sun or energy from other organisms to survive.

Core Ideas:

  • • L1: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.
  • • L2: Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms.
  • • L3: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
  • • L4: The unity and diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Standards:

  • 2.L2U1.9 – Obtain, analyze, and communicate evidence that organisms need a source of energy, air, water, and certain temperature conditions to survive.
  • 2.L2U1.10 – Develop a model representing how life on Earth depends on energy from the Sun and energy from other organisms.

Social Studies

The content areas of civics, economics, geography, history, and disciplinary skills and processes.

Standards:

  • 2.SP3.5 – Ask and answer questions about explanations and arguments.
  • 2.SP4.1 – Generate possible reasons for an event or development.
  • 2.SP4.2 – Select which reasons might be more likely than others to explain an event or development.

Download & Print – NYSI – Grade 3 Standards

Life Science

Students develop an understanding of the flow of energy in a system beginning with the Sun to and among organisms. They also understand that plants and animals (including humans) have specialized internal and external structures and can respond to stimuli to increase survival.

Core Ideas:

  • • L1: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.
  • • L2: Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms.
  • • L3: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
  • • L4: The unity and diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Standards:

  • 3.L1U1.5 – Develop and use models to explain that plants and animals (including humans) have internal and external structures that serve various functions that aid in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
  • 3.L2U1.6 – Plan and carry out investigations to demonstrate ways plants and animals react to stimuli.
  • 3.L2U1.7 – Develop and use system models to describe the flow of energy from the Sun to and among living organisms.
  • 3.L2U1.8 – Construct and argument from evidence that organisms are interdependent.

Social Studies

The content areas of civics, economics, geography, history, and disciplinary skills and processes.

Standards:

  • 3.SP4.1 – probable causes and effects of events.
  • Vocabulary & Concepts
  • Teacher Resources for Download
  • Teacher Feedback Form

Students will focus on predator-prey relationships, food chains, and animal adaptations, and characteristics animals use to survive in their habitat.

  • Predators are animals that hunt and eat other animals.
  • Prey are animals that are eaten by other animals.
  • Some animals are both predator and prey.

Food Chain is the relationship of plants and animals that follows one path. E.g. A hawk eats a snake, which has eaten a frog, which has eaten a grasshopper, which has eaten grass. If one link of the food chain disappears, nature suffers.

Differences between Carnivore, Herbivore, and Omnivore will be compared.

  • Carnivores eat meat.
  • Herbivores eat plants.
  • Omnivores eat both plants and meat.

The characteristics animals use to survive in their habitat will be investigated.
Habitat is where an animal or plant lives.
Camouflage: Animals blend in by using colors, shape, or patterns to enable them to be a successful predator or prey.
Coloration:

  • Standing-out Coloration: This characteristic is opposite to blending in. Why do some animals use color to draw attention?
  • Warning Coloration: Some animals want to be brightly colored for survival. Bright colors mean danger – stay away! I taste bad!
  • Mimicry Coloration: This characteristic allows one animal to look like another animal or something else (maybe a plant).
  • Protective Stillness: This behavior is an important part of blending in and being so still it can’t be seen.

Adaptations that animals use to survive in their habitat will be identified.

  • Physical Adaptations are characteristics or qualities that help an animal or plant survive in its environment. E.g. webbed-feet to help animals swim and wings to enable animals to fly.
  • Behavioral Adaptations are the methods animals use in response to something in their environment. E.g. move into the shade on a hot day.

Concepts learned in the Now You See It activity will be reinforced in a bingo game and hide and hunt activity.

  • NYSI Crossword Puzzle
  • NYSI Word Search Puzzle
  • NYSI Predator and Prey Activity
  • NYSI Carnivore, Herbivore, Omnivore
  • NYSI Drawing Activity
Teacher Feedback Form

Live Field Trips In the Canyon

Scheduling for the 2022-2023 season begins August 1st.  Please check back here on or after that date.

Be sure to check the CALENDAR to identify available dates before requesting a trip.  Normally, trips are available from late October through the following April.

REQUEST AN ELEMENTARY FIELD TRIP

Available dates will be identified as ELEMENTARY AVAILABLE.

Please be aware that scheduled trip dates may change or be cancelled due to the status of COVID-19.

Please note: To provide social distancing due to Covid, we can accommodate no more than 36 children on our field trips.

For each request, be sure to indicate an accurate estimate of the number of students and the correct name of the teacher who will be joining the students in Sabino Canyon on each date.

Elementary programs start no earlier than 9:00 am.

NEW! – “VIRTUAL” Video Field Trips

Now You See ItThose unable to join us for in-person field trips will soon be able to schedule classroom streaming of our Now You See It “virtual” field trip video. In this video version, we discuss most of the vocabulary and concepts included in the original.

The Now You See It video is about 35 minutes long, and can be paused at any time for a short stretch break or until another time or day. You may choose to stream the video from YouTube or our Google Drive.

If you wish to present our virtual Now You See It program to your classes, click on the link below and complete the registration form. This will tell you how to contact our Elementary Scheduler, who will send you a confirmation Email containing the appropriate streaming link.

We also offer the option of a post-video Q & A session with some of our Naturalists via the Zoom platform. If you would like to schedule a Q & A Zoom, indicate this on the form, and one of our Elementary schedulers will contact you.

Schedule Virtual Now You See It!

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5700 N Sabino Canyon Road
Tucson, AZ 85750

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