Students are provided with a picture of a New Zealand native bird. Students select a word from a given list to name each of these bird parts. Students are then required to explain why the bird needs each of these named parts.
Task: Students interpret information about couch grass from a diagram and explain why its special features make it difficult to get rid of. Assessment focus: special features ensure a plant's survival.
Task: Read a short piece of narrative. Identify and explain the behavioural adaptations of oystercatchers. Assessment focus: interpreting text to identify behavioural adaptations and their purposes.
Task: Students read a short written text to explain how the special features of wild ginger help it survive. Assessment focus: explanation of wild ginger's special features and why it is a pest plant.
Task: Identify features of 4 animals that live in water, then use this information to decide whether they are fish or not. Assessment focus: classification of fish.
Task: Identify features of 4 animals that live in water, then use this information to decide whether they are fish or not. Assessment focus: classification of fish.
Students categorise statements according to whether they are evidence or inferences. They make inferences about moa, supporting them with evidence. Assessment focus: thinking in scientific ways.
Task: View photograph to explain how a chiton protects itself in its environment. Assessment focus: identifying features that help to protect an animal in its particular environment.
Task: Place in order six statements about a series of food chain related events in a beech forest, and justify decisions. Assessment focus: interdependence.
Task: Students decide whether four dinosaurs are meat-eaters or plant-eaters, and justify their answers. A list of features of each group is provided. It may be completed individually or as a group assessment. Assessment focus: using evidence.
Task: Students classify each of six drawn whales as either toothed or baleen whales. They then divide each group further by using a key. Assessment focus: Interpreting information.
Students are provided with a narrative of two children who have gone back to the past at a time when dinosaurs existed. Students have a number of questions to answer during the narrative.
Task: Answer questions about frog's skin adaptations, and use this information to think about consequences of chytrid fungus for Archey's frogs. Assessment focus: using information to think about management of native endangered species.
Task: Use pictures to identify special features of various fish and make predictions as to likely habitats based on these features. Assessment focus: purpose of adaptation in fish.
Task: read an article about releasing hand-reared kaka into a safe environment and answer questions about the research. Assessment focus: field investigations.
Students read an article about an investigation into the sustainable harvest of pīkao and identify key features of the investigation. Assessment focus: interpreting information about how scientists work.