In 1966, The Elementary Science Study published a curriculum, Behavior of Mealworms. It provided opportunities for children to engage in many scientific pursuits with readily accessible larval form of a darkling beetle.
In 1977, Hal Abelson and Paul Goldenberg of the MIT AI/Logo Laboratory, published a paper, Teacher’s Guide for Computational Models of Animal Behavior. This paper was intended as a companion to the ESS curriculum and is an early, yet timeless, computational exploration of biological phenomena.
Both of these documents are provided below in PDF form for educational use. 50 years later, they should inspire computational activities and classroom activities.
- Elementary Science Study Behavior of Mealworms
- MIT Logo Memo: Teacher’s Guide for Computational Models of Animal Behavior
- I recently found this document created by the Shoreline School District of Washington State using the “mealworms unit” as an outdoor education curriculum.