Stimulus and Response

1. Stimulus and Response Why animals and plants do what they do OR A fancy way of saying cause and effect in the animal world.

2. Catalyst 1. Describe a situation in which you were immediately scared and/or reacted quickly to something. Write at least 1 paragraph with 4 sentences describing your experience. 2. Take out your journals and your colors.

3. After today you will be able to: 1. Identify and classify stimuli as internal or external 2. Define a response. 3. Identify behavior as learned behavior or instinct.

4. What is a stimulus? Stimulus: any change in an organism’s environment that causes the organism to react. It is a fancy way of saying “cause”. Stimulus – singular Stimuli – plural Example: An animal is cold so it moves into the sun. (Add this word to your journal)

5. What is a response? Response: how the organism reacts to a stimulus and results in a change in behavior.(It is a fancy way of saying “effect”.) Example: Getting a drink when you are thirsty. (Add this word to your journal)

6. Examples of stimuli and their responses: • You are hungry so you eat some food • A rabbit gets scared so it runs away • You are cold so you put on a jacket • A dog is hot so lies in the shade • It starts raining so you take out an umbrella

7. Plants also respond to their environment. When a plant grows towards the sun we call this phototropism.

8. Think – Pair - Share Turn to your partner and share two other stimuli and their responses.

9. There are two types of stimuli: External Stimuli and Internal Stimuli

10. External Stimulus External stimulus: a stimulus that comes from outside an organism. Examples: 1. You feel cold so you put on a jacket. 2. A snake lunges at a rabbit so it runs away. 3. A dog feels hot so it goes to lay in the shade. Add this word to your journal.

11. Internal Stimulus Internal stimulus: a stimulus that comes from inside an organism. Examples: 1. You feel hungry so you eat some food. 2. A cat feels thirsty so it drinks water. 3. A dog feels hot so it goes to lay in the shade. Add this word to your journal.

12. Make a T-chart in your journal and label the columns internal and external. Put the letter of each stimulus in the proper column. • You have a stomach ache and decide to lay down. • A bird is thirsty and drinks some water. • A squirrel sees a cat and runs up a tree. • A lion gets hungry and eats a gazelle. • You see a spider and scream.

13. Animals can respond to stimuli in two ways: 1. In a way that they learned. We call this learned behavior. OR 2. In a way that they were just born knowing how to do. We call this instinct.

14. Learned behavior: a response to a stimulus that an animal was taught. Add this word to your journal

15. A mother bear teaching her cubs to fish

16. Teaching an animal a trick

17. Training a dog

18. Even you have learned behavior. For example, you learned to read and to talk.

19. Instinct: an animal’s natural reaction to a stimulus. It is an automatic reaction that the animal was not taught to do. Add this word to your journal

20. Animals natural instinct is to run away from danger. We call this the need for safety.

21. Animals will naturally find or make themselves a home because they have a need for shelter.

22. Animals will naturally look for food and water.

23. Animals that need to will naturally migrate.

24. Animals instinctually know to store their food for the winter.

25. Think – Write - Share In your journal write down one learned behavior that you have and one instinct that you have.

26. Summarize what you have learned today. • What is a stimulus? • What is a response? • Give one example of a stimulus and its response. • What is an internal stimulus? • What is an external stimulus?

27. It is raining and you open up an umbrella. Is this an internal or external response? Justify your answer. • What is an instinct? • When a rabbit runs away from a wolf is this learned behavior or instinct? Justify your answer.