ANIMAL SHELTERS
Natural and man-made shelters
Natural shelters
Remember earlier you dealt with living and non-living things. Living things need some shelter to protect them from harsh weather conditions.
Some animals live in natural habitats for their homes. Other animals build their own homes. Some animals even live in other animal’s homes. A natural shelter is a home that the animal has made for itself. Animals live in different kinds of homes like:
- holes in the ground
- caves
- nests
- trees
Look at the following picture of a few places where animals live.




Man-made shelters
Other animals live in shelter that were built by humans. These shelters are normally for our pets or animals that we farm.
Structures and materials for animal shelters



The way structures are put together or constructed depends on the type of materials used.
Shell and frame structures
Shell structures mainly contain and/or protect the contents. A bird’s egg protects the little chick growing inside it. A car gives some protection to its passengers. A pot holds the food inside it.
A frame structure gives support. There is a frame structure inside your body! Your skeleton supports your body! Your knees and elbows are places where the bones join.
A frame structure must carry a load in the right places without it collapsing or falling over.
Frames are made of members and joins. The members are the long parts and the joins are where the long parts get together. Sometimes longer tubes can be joined to make triangles. The tubes are called the members. Where the tubes come together that is called the join.
Designing an animal shelter
The Technology Process
When we design and make products and structures we use a special way to do this. It is called the Technology Process. The Technology Process helps you to design and make products.
We use the Technology Process to investigate a specific problem. We then use this information to design and make something to help us solve this problem. While we work on the design and make the product, we constantly evaluate it to see if it is working and if it does what it is meant to do. We also talk to our friends or the other people working with us to tell them what we plan to do and to explain how we want to design or make the product.
Many people use the technology process every day. If you want to design and make something to solve a problem, you can also use it!
The Technology Process has 5 steps:
- Investigate
- Design
- Make
- Evaluate
- Communicate
Whenever we do a Technology project in Natural Science and Technology, we will be following these steps!
Let’s use the Technology Process to help some birds in your area! Remember you need to start by first identifying the problem and then you can start to design and make a solution!
