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Phyla
Annelids
Associated Shape of Life Content
Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms
A list of questions with an emphasis on adaptations to use after viewing the video Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms
ANNELID ADAPTIONS + ART
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Clam Worm
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Annelid Adaptions + Art
This lesson begins with students engaging in the practice of science -- observing the phenomena, describing their observations, and making sense of what they see. They observe annelid behaviors using a Shape of Life video with the audio turned off. They try to figure out what the phenomenon (the behavior) is, how it might help the organism survive, and how it might impact the environment. Working with a partner, they make hypotheses about what they are observing and organisms' adaptions that allow it to perform the behavior.
Annelids: The Next Segment, an Explosion of Life
What i like doing the most is actually getting out, getting down, getting dirty in the mud with the worms themselves. Getting out there whether it's pouring rain, whether it's a low tide at dawn, I don't care. I just like to be out there with the worms, seeing them in their own habitat.
Annelids: Not Lowly, Lovely
Annelids are impressively adapted animals that live in every habitable niche on earth except the sky.
Annelids and Paleontology
Annelid fossils include tracks and burrows, jaws, and whole bodies. They were already diverse in the Cambrian fossils of the Burgess Shale. One of them called Canadia is much like a modern polychaete worm with a fairly complex brain.
Annelids and Human Interaction
Earthworms are generally good for gardens and agriculture because they “turn” the soil, let more air and water flow through the soil and leave behind organic matter. More at University of Illinois Extension: Can't Live Without Me.
Annelids and Climate Change
Serpulids live in calcium carbonate tubes that often create reefs that are important habitat for other animals. Since their reefs are vulnerable to ocean acidification, there could be profound impacts from climate change.
Earthworms are sensitive to heat and moisture and will probably be adversely affect by global warming.
Annelid's Role in the Ecosystem
Annelids have adapted to almost every possible ecological niche from active predator to sedentary filter feeder. They are active burrowers, they swim in pelagic waters, they live at deep sea hot vents. They are members of every trophic level and are important in their ecosystems.
General Information about Annelids
Read THE NEXT SEGMENT An Explosion of Life from the shape of life book.
General information about annelids can be found at the Animal Diversity website.
Nature’s Innovations
Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, found his inspirations from nature. From trees to light to whale bones, Gaudi used solutions from nature for structural support or decoration. He is not unique in using natural engineering to solve problems in our daily lives. In this lesson, we will investigate how, through the process of evolution, animals have solved their engineering problems and how people have mimicked those natural solutions.
World’s Most Awesome Invertebrate
After note taking during the phyla episodes of the shapeoflife.org, student pairs will randomly pick an invertebrate from the hat. After doing more in-depth research on their chosen invertebrate, student pairs will design and create a flyer that will promote the invertebrate’s special abilities. Furthermore, the students will find at least one video clip of their invertebrate from the shapeoflife.org website to present to the class as evidence of their claims. Finally the student pair will argue why their invertebrate should be crowned the “World’s Most Awesome Invertebrate.”
Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms Questions
A list of questions about the characteristics of annelids to use after viewing the video Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms.
Shape of Life Annelida Worksheet. Students make sketches and write short answers about the amazing world of annelids.
A Powerpoint with questions to answer while watching the video Annelids: Powerful and Capable Worms.
Activity: Invertebrate Critter Cards
In this activity students explore how animals are classified. For centuries taxonomists have been classifying the diversity of animal life based on observations and measurements of animals’ body plans. And now, with DNA sequencing, scientists have for the most part confirmed the work of earlier taxonomists. Students will learn the characteristics that define five of the major invertebrate phyla by watching videos, reading and sorting animal cards. The phyla are: Cnidarians, Annelids, Arthropods, Molluscs, and Echinoderms.
Plankton - It's a Way of Life
Students learn about the microscopic world of tiny plankton drifters. They watch videos that simulate looking at live invertebrate larvae under a microscope.
Our Oceans: The Frontier for Curious Minds
By Nancy Burnett, Founder, Shape of Life
I just went to a wonderful workshop about plankton. We may as well fess up to the fact that there’s a whole world out there in the ocean that we haven't told you about, yet. Most marine animals that we know and love started out in life looking very different from what they look like as adults.
At the beginning of life, they hatch out of eggs that float in the water or are attached to the bottom of the ocean. The tiny larvae feed, grow and change form in the ocean as part of the zooplankton. These fragile, otherworldly creatures swim or drift in the currents for months at a time before settling to the bottom to change into adults.
Earthworms
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Green Bomber Worm
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