Here’s a fun classroom activity that uses the power of generative AI as part of a unit about animal adaptations and classification with a bit of habitats thrown in for good measure.

The students can come up with a description of a strange, new animal. They can describe characteristics that they have come up with themselves or that have been picked at random. They then describe the animal to an AI tool such as Copilot, Adobe Firefly or Gemini (if outside the UK/EU) and have it create realistic images of this made-up animal.

For example:

Choosing the Characteristics

Start by providing a set of characteristics that could be picked at random. Maybe you could have different characteristics cut out on cards and pull them out at random.

Or you could adapt an on-screen random name picker. I set this up using the 8 sided dice in ClassroomScreen. You could do similar in a low-tech way with real dice plus pen and paper. Roll the dice and pick a characteristic from the first list. Then repeat for the second list and so on. This worksheet will help you.

Another way to do it would be to give each group or pair a particular habitat to get them started and ask them to come up with ideas for what an animal living there might look like. Or they research some animals and pick out features that they like.

Generating the Image

Then from the various characteristics they have, the children could craft their prompt to ask the AI to generate their creature for them. Use lots of descriptive words and phrases to help the AI understand what the creature could look like. Let it know whether you want a drawing or a photorealistic image. Give it a habitat too – put it in a swamp, or underwater or in the snow etc.

A prompt might look like this:

“Create an image of creature with a snake-like body. It has large ears like a desert fox. It has a tail like a scorpion with a large sting at the end. It is yellow and black. Picture the animal slithering across a rocky desert. Photorealistic.”

or

“I want you to create an image of an imaginary animal for me. I want it to be an amphibian with webbed feet and slimy skin. It will have stripes like a zebra. It will be a predator, so it will have forward facing eyes and sharp teeth. It has large moth-like antennae on its head.”

Write about the animal

Once the animal is created the students could then write about their animal. They could look at the features the animal has, and think about why it has adapted to look like that. They can infer from the way the animal looks what it eats and where it lives.

They could create a factfile or presentation about their animal, including information such as:

• What is the creature’s name?
• What kind of animal is it? Invertebrate, fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, or mammal?
• Where does it live? Does it live in water? On land?
• What makes this habitat a challenging place to survive in? How does it survive in this habitat?
• What kind of animal might try to eat your creature?
• Who are its predators?
• What does your creature eat? What is its prey? Is it a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore?
• Does your creature have any special skills or adaptations that help it survive in this habitat?

Use this worksheet to support this.

As an extension you could print out the creatures created by each group and then the class could create a classification key to identify each animal. You could even use a branching database like the one in Purple Mash or J2E.

Using Padlet

If you have trouble getting access to an AI tool like this – use Padlet and the children can add images using the new “I Can’t Draw” feature. (Thanks Lillian Daim on Facebook for reminding me about this feature.)

See how to do that here.

Alternative Method

As a simpler way to do this – you could use something like Switch Zoo to create an animal from the head/body and tail of different animals.

Let me know if you try this, and how it works. What kind of creatures did your class produce?