Living World resources

Students identify the variables to be kept constant, and the variable to be different, when they plan a fair test to show if green plants need light to grow.

Task: Order fruit according to size and number of seeds, make a generalisation about the pattern and use this to predict whether a fig has small or large seeds. Assessment focus: pattern seeking.

Students are given a diagram and information on the ratios of black- to grey-coated possums. Students answer questions relating to this information as well as identifying a method that could be used to determine the percentage of each coat colour.

Students complete a table by explaining how 3 different seed types are able to be dispersed.

Students explain adaptations of kangaroos and horses to protect their young.

Task: Use understandings about heat energy and insulation to describe how adaptations help Emperor penguins survive in Antarctica. Assessment focus: adaptations for keeping warm in cold conditions.

Task: Identify how features/adaptations of a starfish help it survive, and decide whether the amount of evidence from scientists' observations supports or does not support their theory/inference. Assessment focus: using observations as evidence to inform theories.

Task: Students give oral explanations about how the features of a wētā or a mallard duck help it survive in its environment. Peer assessment sheets are included. Assessment focus: structure and function.

Task: Show the relationship of birds' beaks and feet to the food they eat. Assessment focus: adaptations.

Task: Match birds and nests, and explain why the choice was made. Assessment focus: using environmental cues to make inferences.

Task: Make careful observations of objects in a picture to assess the size of one of the objects.

Students explain how two armoured reptiles' adaptations protect them from being eaten by predators.

Task: Use information about differences between moths and butterflies to decide which category examples belong to, and identify what evidence was used. Assessment focus: observation, using evidence.

Task: Decide which of two graphs e.g., tally chart, pictograph, bar graph is represented by a picture and explain how the graph/s are interpreted.

Task: Make careful observations of a picture to decide what you can see and what you might know but can't see.

Task: Students differentiate between simple observations and inferences, and between observations that require measurement and those that do not. Assessment focus: observing scientifically.

For this task students are provided with photographs of four different types of weta. Students are asked to give two features that weta have in common with each other and to give two features that show weta belong to the group insects.

Task: Identify from an experiment the preferred living conditions of slaters, and use a fact file to suggest reasons why. Assessment focus: interpreting results of an investigation.

Students compare drawings of a healthy and unhealthy plant and decide which quantitative and/or qualitative data distinguishes them. They draw conclusions from the data. This is a mathematics/science resource.

Students answer one question about diet given the type of beak that birds have. Students are also asked about how scientists might investigate information about moa.

This task requires a hyacinth bulb to be set up in a glass container. As it develops and grows students make observations.

Task: Use written text and pictures to explain how the special features of Old Man's Beard help it survive. Assessment focus: identifying how the special features help this plant to survive.

Students are provided with drawings of the main types of fingerprints. Students then make their own fingerprint and those of three other students. They then classify and describe the differences between these prints.

Task: Students decide what sort of animals two skulls belong to. A self-assessment checklist is included. Assessment focus: using evidence to identify carnivores and herbivores.

Task: match seed description to a dispersal method. Assessment focus: seed dispersal.