Living World resources

Task: Use close observation of photos and prior knowledge, to write explanations of how the special features of animal tongues help animals survive in their habitats. Assessment focus: structure and function.

Task: Look for similarities and differences in fruit to answer questions about observation and evidence.

Students colour in three fish according to given instructions. They then explain the advantage of this colour pattern for each fish.

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.

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

Task: Dictate what is observed from viewing a video clip of a monarch butterfly emerging from a chrysalis (answering a specific question), and sequence some photographs in the correct order. Assessment focus: observing and describing.

Task: Students play a tag game that simulates the relationships between elements within a waterway and discuss how different scenarios impact on the populations living there. Assessment focus: changes within a habitat affect everything living there.

Students complete a plant record for a tree by making observations.

This task requires students to order four photographs of the life cycle of the Paradise Duck. Students describe the changes that have occurred in each part of the lifecycle. NOTE: It is intended that this resource be used in colour.

This practical task requires students to order five photographs of the life cycle of a Harrier Hawk. Students describe the changes that have occurred in each part of the lifecycle. NOTE: This resource is intended to be used in colour.

This practical requires students to place four photographs of kākāpo at different times in their life cycle in order from youngest to oldest. Students describe how the kākāpo changes from each part of the life cycle to the next. NOTE: This resource is intended to be used in colour.

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.

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

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 are given an outline of a fair test. They are asked to identify the aim, variables to be controlled, how to judge the results, and an aspect of replication.

For this practical task students investigate water (and dye) movement in a plant when the stem of a daisy is cut lengthwise into three sections. Students record their observations and then explain their results in a scientific way. Key words have been provided.

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.

Drawings of four different seeds are provided. Students explain how each seed is dispersed.

Students give two reasons why it is an advantage for a porcupine fish to inflate its body and have its spines stick out when it is in danger.

Task: Complete chart to show how birds' feet and beaks are suitably adapted for their particular food and environment. Assessment focus: inference.

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

Task: Students use an image of an Australian lizard to explain what purpose is served by the lizard's tail looking like its head. Assessment focus: features for survival.

Task: Match insects to their adaptations for protection against enemies, and infer two ways stick insects are adapted for their protection against predators. Assessment focus: using observations to make suggestions about survival methods.

For this practical task, students join 'dominos'. They match an animal feature on the initial 'domino' with the appropriate animal picture on the next 'domino'.