Ecology resources

Task: Interpret a flowchart and text to identify in what ways goats are pests. Assessment focus: identifying ways in which goats are pests and how they are controlled.

Some notes on the rabbit calicivirus are provided. Students use these and their own understandings of food chains to answer four questions.

Task: Students explain six things that would be needed to develop and maintain an offshore island habitat for endangered birds. Assessment focus: identification of needs of endangered birds.

Task: Read information and compare the special features that influence the chances of survival of black robins and fantails. Assessment focus: interpreting text to identify risk factors for survival.

Task: Match vocabulary and definitions, and select why these terms are useful to know when thinking about butterflies at risk. Assessment focus: understanding science texts.

Task: Make observations from a photograph, identify potential environmental problems giving reasons, decide which problem is the most important, and give reasons for the choice. Assessment focus: (1) observation, and (2) identifying and prioritising cause and effect relationships.

Task: Make observations from a photograph, identify potential environmental problems giving reasons, decide which problem is the most important, and give reasons for the choice. Assessment focus: (1) observation, and (2) identifying and prioritising cause and effect relationships.

Task: Make observations from a photograph, identify potential problems giving reasons, decide which problem is the most important and give reasons for the choice. Assessment focus: observing, identifying risk.

Task: Make observations from a photograph, identify potential environmental problems giving reasons, decide which problem is the most important, and give reasons for the choice. Assessment focus: (1) observation, and (2) identifying and prioritising cause and effect relationships.

Task: Make observations from a photograph, identify potential environmental problems giving reasons, decide which problem is the most important, and give reasons for the choice. Assessment focus: (1) observation, and (2) identifying and prioritising cause and effect relationships.

In this activity students progressively build up evidence for and against a new idea in pest control: using bumblebees to transmit a fungicide. Students practise argumentation skills and reflect on how they formulate opinions on environmental issues.

Students combine their observations with some information provided to complete a story about what might have happened in the photograph.

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: 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.

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: Use a Venn diagram to interpret a food web based on the vegetable garden. Assessment focus: using diagrams to identify relationships between organisms; using systems thinking to describe these relationships.

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.

A bar graph showing the percentage of endangered species threatened by predation, competition, and/or habitat loss is given. Students use this graph to answer questions and explain the terms; predation, competition, and habitat loss.

Using a diagram of a crab, students explain some of the crab's adaptations.

Task: Identify adaptations of 3 animals that live under the soil, and design an animal that could live underground. Self-assess the design by considering given criteria. Assessment focus: adaptations that enable an animal to live underground.

Using a labelled flower, students select the parts which are responsible for seed formation, pollen production, and bud protection.

Task: Match animal pests to the harm they cause, and use information about pest control. Assessment focus: animal pests and their control.

Task: Fill in a chart to identify the damage caused by various animal pests. Assessment focus: specific contextual knowledge about animal pests.

Reading text to find information about how scientists work. Assessment focus: interpreting information about how scientists work.

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.