Summary
A mother roly-poly carries her eggs in a little pouch on her belly, then releases a swarm of pale, tiny babies. Deep Look shows a stage of the pill bug life cycle you rarely get to see.
Viewer safety
Deep Look films tiny creatures in extreme macro close-up, so a squeamish class may find this one intense -- preview if that's a concern.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
Roly-polies (pill bugs) are land crustaceans. A mother keeps her eggs in a fluid-filled pouch under her body until tiny, pale young hatch and crawl out. The babies look like miniature adults and grow by molting -- part of the pill bug's life cycle.
- Where does a mother roly-poly keep her eggs?
- How do the newborn roly-polies look compared to the adult?
- What are the main stages in a roly-poly's life?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: life cycle, brood pouch, molt, crustacean.
Try it: Draw the life cycle of a roly-poly: eggs in the pouch, tiny young, grown adult. Write how the babies change as they grow.