Observing Frogs through Sketching

Now that you've seen some of the diversity of frog species, you maybe wondering, why there are so many different types of frogs, and how they become so different?

To start answering that question, you'll need to understand some of what makes one frog different from others. To do that, you'll need to use one of a scientist’s most important tools - careful observation. Your task is be to choose one frog, observe it carefully enough to notice all of its features, and then draw an accurate picture of it.

On a clean piece of paper, spend 5 minutes sketching one of the frogs from the "Meet the Frogs" slide show. In addition, you may choose to go into the 3-D view of the frogs listed in the slide show to see additional angles.

Improving your drawing

What did you notice while you were drawing that you didn’t notice when you first glanced at the frog?

Compare you drawing to other students. What makes a good scientific drawing? What did you see other people do, that you wish you had done? Perhaps you noticed labels, a measurement scale, descriptive words to supplement the drawing, more than one angle, or enlargements of specific details.

Add in any revisions to your drawing.