Last updated: August 8, 2025
Lesson Plan
Myth or Reality
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Living with Wildlife 7th Grade Curriculum
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- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- SC.7.L.17.1
LA.7.6.2.2 - Thinking Skills:
- Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
What misconceptions do people have about Florida’s wildlife? How can these misconceptions be corrected?
Objective
In this activity, students will:
1. Brainstorm what they already know (or think they know) about the predators of Florida.
2. Take a quiz as a class to see how much they actually know about predators.
3. Research the quiz material and retake it as a class to see how much new information they found about Florida’s predators.
4. Discuss changes in their attitudes towards Florida's predators.
Preparation
1. Make a copy of the worksheet for each student.
2. If desired, print background information or find books to help students research answers to the quiz questions (optional).
Materials
Myth or Reality Quiz Powerpoint
Download Lesson 1 - Myth or Reality
Procedure
1. Ask students to tell you what they already know about the behavior of Florida panthers, Florida black bears, coyotes, American alligators, and bobcats. Write a list of their ideas on the board for each animal. Encourage them to think about how and when each animal hunts, what it eats, and how it responds to humans as well as other behaviors. Then, take a class vote to determine the class’s answer to the question.
2. Open the PowerPoint presentation called “Myth or Reality Quiz”. Explain to students that you are going to test their knowledge of Florida predators. Take the quiz as a class. For each question, have each student record their personal answer on their worksheet in the “First Answer” column. Then, take a class vote to determine the class’s answer to the question. Record the class answer on the Class Answers Sheet.
3. Once the quiz is completed, have students conduct research either at home or on computers or mobile devices in the classroom to help them find answers to the questions they were unsure about (or you may choose to have students research every question). Instruct students to cite evidence they find for each question and the source they used in the “Research” column on their worksheet.
4. After students have finished their research (perhaps the next class period), retake the same “Myth or Reality Quiz” as a class. Use the second half of the PowerPoint presentation that will reveal the answers upon a click of the mouse. This time, for each question, have a student cite evidence they found to help the class answer the question.
5. For each question, have the student record their “New answer” on the worksheet. Tally a class vote to obtain a new class answer and record it on the Class Answers Sheet. Then reveal the correct answer to the question.
6. After the quiz is completed and you’ve discussed the answers, compare the class score on the quiz before and after the students conducted research. Did the class score improve?
7. Have a class discussion using the following questions as prompts:
• Were you surprised by any of the answers to the quiz?
• Why do you think so many people have misconceptions about predators?
• Do you feel any differently about the predators of Florida after learning more information about them? How so?