Insect Structure: Morphology

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Teaching Inquiry with Insects and Animals
Tiffany Heng-Moss Department of
Entomology University of Nebraska
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Insects in the Classroom
Great model organism for teaching life science
concepts and science process skills
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Insects in the Classroom
Relatively inexpensive to rear Easy to
maintain Short life cycles Young learns are
fascinated with insects
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Insects in the Classroom
Huge impact on human society - damage crops and
urban structures - transmit diseases -
recycle organic matter - pollinate crops -
influence art, music, and literature
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Insects in the Classroom
Practical reasons - few people object to
dissecting insects - increase in animal
welfare concerns - few restrictions on
insects - studied both indoors and outdoors
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Scientific Method

• Observation opportunity for students to make
  their own observations
• Question ask questions
• Hypothesis predict what the answer to a
• question might be (make sure testable)
• Methods carry out the experiment gather
  data
• Results state what happened
• Conclusion was your hypothesis confirmed or
  not, propose explanations

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Important Things to Remember when Conducting an
Inquiry

• Replicate
• Variability in results
• small changes in environmental conditions can
  make a difference
• - behaviors can vary among individual animals
• Test only one variable

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Ways to do Scientific Inquiries

• Structured Inquiry
• Students engaged in hands-on activity
• Follow precise instructions from teacher
• Guided Inquiry
• Teacher chooses question to investigate
• Students develop procedures for investigation
• Student-Initiated Inquiry
• Students generate questions
• Design their own investigation