Students will design a biologically plausible organism, choose one extreme environment, and justify how its adaptations solve real environmental pressures. With a trait bank, word bank, a structured CER, and a Survival Index that rolls into a class bar graph, students connect structure → function → survival while practicing clear scientific communication.

Learning Targets

Identify environment pressures; design structural, behavioral, and physiological adaptations; write a CER; compute and graph a Survival Index.

What’s Included

• Teacher Guide: setup, clear timing, and background on structure–function, osmoregulation, thermoregulation, and camouflage; guidance for a fair, non-fantasy design task.
• Student Packet: environment menu, Trait Bank + Word Bank, labeled-sketch directions with 6–8 callouts (Trait → Pressure → How it helps), CER scaffold, and a Survival Index table.
• Class Data & Graphing Pages: class table and a bar-graph task (“Class Average Survival Score by Environment”) with a one-sentence caption.
• Analysis & Model Answers: four targeted prompts (highest/lowest average, water-efficiency mechanisms, “migration tweak”) with exemplar responses.
• Rubric: environment understanding, design & adaptations, scientific accuracy, CER quality, and Survival Index/data analysis.
  

Why Teachers Love It

• Truly print-and-go with explicit directions students can follow independently
• Integrates real biology (structure–function) with data skills (rating, averaging, graphing, captioning)
• Flexible and engaging: choose from five extreme environments; supports sketching or digital drawing
• Built-in CER and analysis questions keep the focus on evidence-based reasoning
• Easy to differentiate (trait banks, word bank terms, adjustable number of required callouts)

➡️ You can get this STEM as well as all my other ones in this series inside my STEM Investigations Growing Bundle. As more labs are added, the price will increase. CLICK HERE to have a look

Best For

Life Science (adaptations, structure & function), intro to natural selection/survival, scientific practices, data & graphing, stations, enrichment, or sub plans.

Materials Needed

Student worksheet (included), drawing supplies or digital sketch tools, graph paper (or template). That’s it—no lab setup required.

Estimated Timing:

1 class period for choose environment → sketch & label → Survival Index; add 15–30 minutes for CER, class graph, and a gallery walk/peer feedback (timing guidance provided).

➡️ You can get this activity inside my STEM Investigations Growing Bundle.

I also have the following STEM Labs in My Store:

• Blow Cup Challenge STEM Lab
• Paper Table STEM Lab
• Pendulum STEM Lab
• Parachute STEM Lab
• Catapult STEM Lab
• Paper Airplane - Angle of Attack STEM Lab
• Bottle Flip STEM Lab
• Paper Helicopter STEM Lab
• Yeast Balloon STEM Lab
• Balloon Lift Design STEM Lab
• Candy Combustion Calorimetry STEM Lab
• Marble Ramp: Height vs Average Speed STEM Lab
• Clean Water Filtration STEM Lab
• Beetle Genetics STEM Lab
• Adaptations by Design - Extreme Environments STEM Lab

NGSS alignment

• MS-LS3-1, MS-LS3-2 (genes & probability of traits);
• Practices: Planning & Carrying Out Investigations; Analyzing & Interpreting Data; Using Mathematics & Computational Thinking; Constructing Explanations; Engaging in Argument from Evidence.

Assessment

Use the included rubric to score environment understanding, adaptation quality and plausibility, scientific accuracy, CER strength, and class data/graph work.