Worksheet

Clues in the Armadillo Field Journal

Use a children's museum field journal and response data to model how an armadillo senses, processes information, and responds.

Grade 4ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to4-LS1-2

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Single worksheet
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1 NGSS standard
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15 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students model how sense organs receive information and send it to the brain.
Students connect brain processing to an animal's observed response using evidence.
Students evaluate observations and predictions about animal information pathways.

How to use

Read the field journal together and discuss which parts are directly observed. Then have students use the data and models to answer the questions independently.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

4-LS1-2

Model how animals take in information with their senses, process it in the brain and respond.

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Clues in the Armadillo Field Journal

Use a museum field journal to model how information leads to an animal’s response.

Read the field journal

Read Rowan's journal from the Children's Museum Animal Clues gallery. Use the journal and data table to answer the questions.

Rowan's Four-Day Journal

Rowan kept a field journal while observing Tess, a three-banded armadillo, in the Children's Museum Animal Clues gallery. A low barrier kept visitors and Tess safely apart. An educator reminded Rowan to record what could be seen or heard. Rowan could not see inside Tess's body, so ideas about what happened in Tess's brain were part of a model, not a direct observation.

On Day 1, a staff member rolled a bright yellow ball across Tess's view. Tess looked toward the ball in 4 of 5 trials. On Day 2, a small bell rang behind a screen. Tess turned her head toward the sound in 3 of 5 trials. Tess could not see the bell. The staff member used the same bell and rang it from the same place each time.

On Day 3, a covered dish held a small piece of apple. Air could pass through several holes in the cover, but Tess could not see the apple. She walked toward the dish in 4 of 5 trials. On Day 4, the same covered dish was empty. Tess walked toward it in 1 of 5 trials. The dish, location, and observation time were kept the same on both days.

Rowan wrote this table in the journal: Yellow ball visible—information available: light from a moving object—response: looked toward ball—4 of 5 trials. Bell behind screen—information available: sound—response: turned toward sound—3 of 5 trials. Covered dish with apple—information available: food odor—response: walked toward dish—4 of 5 trials. Empty covered dish—information available: no apple odor—response: walked toward dish—1 of 5 trials.

The educator said that a useful model can show a path: information in the surroundings is received by a sense organ, the brain processes the information, and the animal responds. The brain may use earlier experiences when it processes information. A model should not claim that Tess responded in every trial when the table shows that some trials had no response.

Which statement is a direct observation from Rowan's journal rather than an idea about what happened inside Tess?

A. Tess's brain decided that the bell was important.
B. Tess remembered that food can be inside a dish.
C. Tess walked toward the dish in four apple trials.
D. Tess processed the odor before moving.

In how many of the five bell trials did Tess turn her head toward the sound? trials

Which model best represents one trial in which Tess walked toward the covered dish with an apple?

A. Apple odor → brain → nose → walks toward dish
B. Apple odor → nose → brain processes information → walks toward dish
C. Nose → apple odor → walks toward dish → brain processes information
D. Brain processes apple odor → dish → nose → walks toward dish

Select the two details that help show that the Day 3 and Day 4 dish results were a useful comparison.

The same covered dish was used.The apple dish was tested on Day 3.The dish location stayed the same.Tess was an armadillo.The gallery had a low barrier.

Why does Rowan's model include the brain between a sense organ and a response?

A. The brain helps process information before the animal acts.
B. The brain lets the legs move before a sense organ gets information.
C. The brain is the sense organ that detects each signal.
D. The brain makes the outside object move toward the animal.

What comparison in the journal gives the clearest evidence that the apple odor may have affected Tess's movement toward the dish?

A. The yellow ball led to four looks, and the bell led to three turns.
B. The bell was behind a screen, and the ball was in view.
C. Tess moved toward the apple dish in four trials but the empty dish in one.
D. The dish was used on two days, and the bell was used on one day.

Which claim is best supported by the data table?

A. A visible moving object was one kind of information Tess could respond to.
B. Tess responded more often to light than to food odor.
C. Tess understood what the bell was used for in the gallery.
D. Tess used her eyes to detect the sound behind the screen.

Build and check models

Use the journal evidence to evaluate models, plan a comparison, and explain what the data can show.

A student draws this model for the bell trial: bell → ears → turns toward bell → brain processes sound. Which revision best fixes the model?

A. Remove the ears because the sound reached Tess from behind a screen.
B. Move the brain step before the ears receive the sound.
C. Place brain processing between the ears receiving sound and the head turn.
D. Replace the brain step with the screen because it hid the bell.

Select the two predictions that fit Rowan's model and the journal evidence.

If a bell rings where Tess cannot hear it, a head turn is less likely.If Tess sees the yellow ball, she will look away from it in most trials.If an apple is hidden in a dish with air holes, Tess might walk toward the dish.If a screen hides the bell, Tess will use her eyes to hear it.If the dish is empty, Tess will walk toward it four times.

10.

The museum team wants to test whether food odor affects movement toward the dish. Which plan gives the clearest comparison?

A. Use an apple dish in the morning and a bell dish later in the day.
B. Use the same covered dish and location, but compare trials with an apple to trials with no apple.
C. Use a larger apple in a new dish and watch Tess from a different place.
D. Use the same apple dish but change the observation time for each trial.

11.

A student writes: moving yellow ball → eyes → looks toward ball → brain. What is the most important change?

A. Put the ball after the brain because the brain creates the ball.
B. Put the response before the eyes because movement helps Tess see.
C. Put brain processing after the response so the model ends with the brain.
D. Put brain processing after the eyes receive information and before the look.

12.

What can Rowan reasonably conclude from Tess walking toward the apple dish in 4 of 5 trials and the empty dish in 1 of 5 trials?

A. The comparison supports the idea that food odor can influence Tess's response.
B. The comparison proves that Tess noticed the apple with her eyes.
C. The comparison shows that Tess preferred the empty dish.
D. The comparison proves that Tess's brain made the odor stronger.

13.

A visitor says, “Tess did not turn toward the bell in two trials, so her ears stopped working.” Which evaluation best fits the journal?

A. The claim is supported because a response happened in three trials.
B. The claim is too strong because the observations do not show why those two trials had no turn.
C. The claim is supported because the screen kept the sound from reaching Tess.
D. The claim is too strong because Tess used her eyes instead of her brain.

14.

Use the field journal to write a complete information-path model for a trial in which Tess turns toward the hidden bell. Name the sense organ, describe the brain's role, and end with the observed response.

15.

Rowan wants to repeat the covered-dish test with a different armadillo. Make a claim about what might happen and support it with two details from the journal. Explain why the prediction is not certain for every trial.