Cold-Blooded
Creatures: Classroom Activities
(Back
to Fact Sheet)
You've learned a bit about what makes cold-blooded creatures tick. Now dive into some activities that can help you see and feel just what it means to be one!
Try This!
- Visit the Infrared Zoo
- Journal: My Day as a Cold Blooded Creature
- Imagine: What Does it Feel Like?
- Move Like a Cold-Blooded Monarch
- Figure: How Much Food Energy Do YOU Need to Stay 98.6 Degrees?
- Journal, Discuss, and Dig Deeper
Visit
the Infrared Zoo: Images Capture Warm and Cold-Blooded 
These
special images let you SEE the differences between warm and cold-blooded
animals. While you’re there, try being a cold-blooded animal seeking
warm-blooded prey.
Journal: My Day as a Cold Blooded Creature
Imagine you suddenly became cold-blooded. In fact, like a monarch, you can't move at all at temperatures below 41 degrees F. At that temperature, you can just begin to move. But it needs to be at least 55 F for you to have a normal activity level. How would your life be different? Write a short story about the day your warm-blooded body went cold. Imagine that you had to plan your activities around the day's temperature changes. Describe how this affected your plans, and what warm-blooded people had to do to help you!
Imagine: What Does it Feel Like?
Close your eyes and imagine you're in a big swimming pool filled with thick molasses up to your neck. You have to work very hard to get anywhere. Your movements are very slow. You're a cold-blooded creature, such as a monarch.
- Why would food be harder for you to eat in winter than in the summer?
- How might breathing be more difficult?
Watch out! Here comes a predator!
Move Like a Cold-Blooded Monarch
1. Post this chart on the board or on chart paper:
| Monarch
Movements at Different Temperatures |
||
| below 41 F | 41 F to 55 F | 55 F |
| paralyzed | can crawl | can begin to fly |
2.
Imagine you are a room full of monarch butterflies. The teacher
or a student volunteer should call out a temperature from 1 degree F to
100 degrees F. Everyone in the class should act out monarch movements
that "fit" with the selected temperature. The leader should
explain why he or she will call out temperatures above 55 F:
As temperatures rise, monarchs' muscles get warmer
and warmer, and they can fly better and better.
3. Repeat several times. Discuss what it "felt" like to have your movements limited. (Also discuss the fact that cold-blooded creatures don't have feelings like humans do! They are simply adapted to survive in their environments.)
Figure: How Much Food Energy Do YOU Need to Stay 98.6 Degrees?
Humans (and other warm-blooded animals) use a LOT of food energy to maintain our body temperature. In fact, we use about 75% of our energy to do this! How much food is that?
1. Keep a list of everything you eat in a day (and the approximate quantities).
2. Go to the online Calorie Counter. Try to find the approximate calorie (food energy) count for each of your food items. You can combine similar items; for instance, add all the calories in fruits you ate and list that number in a fruit category. Do the same with sweets.
3. Draw a pie chart. Each slice should represent one of the food items or categories.
4. Shade in 75% of the calories on the pie. This shows how much food energy you use to keep a constant body temperature. (If you have time, draw or paste on pictures of each food or category.)
THINK: Draw what you think a similar pie chart might look like for a cold-blooded creature. (Remember, it should show how much food energy is used to maintain body temperature.)
Journal, Discuss, and Dig Deeper
Journaling and Discussion Questions
- What challenges do you think a cold-blooded creature would face if it came out or returned from migration too early in the spring?
- What temperature-related dangers might monarch butterflies face if their Oyamel fir forests are cut back further?
- Are cold-blooded or warm-blooded animals more likely to have fur and sweat glands? Explain your answer.
Digging
Deeper
How
can the season's early hummingbirds — the tiniest of all warm blooded
animals — possibly survive when they go to sleep on a cold night?
