May/June 2024

Do Raccoons Work Alone?

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Students will identify steps scientists use to conduct investigations as they read about a raccoon scientist’s experiment.

 

Reading Level:

Lexile: 470L; GRL: J

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

Practice 3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

2-LS4-1: Observe Plants and Animals in Their Habitats

Vocabulary:

loner, test, observe, social, record

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

 

1. What question did Lauren ask? ________.
(Do raccoons work alone to steal food?)

2. What did Lauren do to find the answer to her question?
(She set up a test with a camera to observe raccoons at night.)

3. What did Lauren observe when she watched the raccoon videos?
(The raccoons came in groups to get the food.)

4. What question about raccoons would you like to ask?
(Answers will vary.)

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • Raccoons are extremely smart mammals. They can solve the trickiest puzzles.
  • Their sense of touch is their superpower; they can touch and identify almost anything, even in the dark.
  • President Calvin Coolidge kept a raccoon named Rebecca in the White House. (A bad idea—wild animals are dangerous.)

Materials: Pencils, clipboards, copies of the skill sheet. (Optional: hand lenses)

Overview:  Like Lauren, students will observe an animal and record what it does. Skip the night cameras and head outside to find one. (Alternate: Observe a tree or other item in nature, or use photos/videos indoors.)

Directions:

  1. Before you leave the classroom, tell students they’ll go outside to be animal scientists like Lauren. Remind kids that she observes animals to learn about them.
  2. Give each student a clipboard, a pencil, and a copy of the skill sheet. Head outside.
  3. Ask kids what animals they see or might see. Remind them that if they’re quiet, they can observe more. Do they see or hear any birds or insects? At first, just let them explore and soak up impressions.
  4. When students spot an animal, remind them to observe quietly without touching.
  5. How does the animal move? Does it make a sound? Does it have legs, and if so, how many?
  6. Record observations on the skill sheets. If there’s time, students can share them with others—real scientists do that too!