WorksheetPremium

The Raccoon Cue Journal

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

Grade 4ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to4-LS1-2

Buy this worksheet: $1.50

Or unlock every Premium worksheet with Premium

PrintUnlock to print

Answer keyUnlock to see answers

Assign to classUnlock to assign with a class code

What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
14 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

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

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students model how sensory information travels from a sense organ to the brain and leads to a response.
Students use observations and response data to support claims about animal sensory information.
Students distinguish direct observations from ideas about an animal's internal processing.

How to use

Read the field journal aloud or have students read it independently. Examine the graph together, then ask students to use arrows and evidence to explain the raccoon's responses.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

4-LS1-2

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

Preview

OwlSheets.com

Name Date

The Raccoon Cue Journal

Build models from a museum field journal.

Read the field journal

Use Jordan's journal and the graph to answer the questions. The clips showed a raccoon in a woodland den.

Jordan's Museum Field Journal

Day 1: At the Children's Museum Woodland Den exhibit, I watched short clips of a raccoon named Moss. In one set of clips, a paper leaf moved where Moss could see it. In another set, a leaf rustled behind a screen, so Moss could not see the leaf. I recorded whether Moss turned its head toward the cue within five seconds.

Day 2: I watched clips with a still leaf in view and clips with a screen in view while the room stayed quiet. I used the same five-second time for each trial. Day 3: I repeated the four kinds of clips. I combined the counts from all three days in the graph. A head turn was the response I recorded. A head turn did not tell me by itself what Moss sensed or what happened inside its brain. The exhibit educator reminded me to write down only what I could see or hear in the clips. She also explained that the screen was there only to hide the leaf, and that the room stayed quiet in every clip without a rustle, so the cues could be compared fairly. Each kind of clip was shown six times over the three days, so every cue had the same number of chances to produce a head turn. I counted a head turn only when Moss moved its head toward the cue, not when it looked around the room.