Engage with science resources

Task: Answer questions about a planned wildlife reserve. Assessment focus: interdependence of animals with their habitat.

Task: Identify how the kererū's adaptations contribute to its interactions with its ecosystem, and how knowing about kererū's' adaptations can benefit both it and people. Assessment focus: using understandings about adaptations to consider actions affecting the kererū.

Task: Decide the advantages for survival of both introduced and native frogs' life cycles, explain how climate change could impact on native frogs, and identify level of interest in survival of native frogs. Assessment focus: using information about adaptations.

Students use their knowledge of the fire triangle to identify risk factors for a given scenario, and apply this to their own situation. They use rubrics to rate and improve some of their explanations.

Task: Sort cards to identify how four items of rubbish will impact on the beach, plants and animals that are found there, and humans. They then select items to remove and leave, and justify their decisions. Assessment focus: impact of materials on the environment.

Students identify where heat is lost from a house, explain ways to reduce heat loss and suggest ways to reduce heat loss.

Students design a low energy house.

Task: Using statements from four people decide and justify whether or not each person supports wind farms. Identify which person has a misconception about wind farms, giving a reason. Assessment focus: identifying different perspectives.

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.

Students complete the wording for an advertisement about recycling. They need to complete sections on why, what, and how we recycle.

Students are provided with two photographs of an area, one before a tree planting programme and one five years later. Students are asked to write an article on how tree-planting helps the environment.

Task: Describe problems caused by cutting down trees on a bank. Assessment focus: erosion.

Students list advantages and disadvantages of recycling. The assessment focuses on students' ability to identify impacts on the environment and its inhabitants (including people).

Task: Match recycled materials to their possible uses, and justify reasons for recycling. Assessment focus: reasons for recycling.

Task: Students suggest ways to stop sand dunes blowing on to farmland, and describe the predicted outcome of their suggestions. Assessment focus: application of knowledge of erosion to a specific situation.

Students explain their understandings of the benefits of having trees in the school playground.

For this task students are provided with some weather information that includes the UV index. Students interpret this information to answer three short answer questions.

Make observations from a photograph, identify potential environmental problems giving reasons, decide which problem is the most important and give reasons for the choice.

Task: Complete a drawing of things found on a dairy farm, and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in a dairy farm environment.

Task: Complete a drawing of things found in a garden, and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in a garden.

Task: Complete a drawing of things found in and near a flax bush, and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in a flax bush environment.

Task: Complete a drawing of things found in an area of native bush and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in a native bush environment.

Task: Complete a drawing of things found in or near an ocean, and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in an ocean environment.

Task: Students identify which different events threaten our native birds or have done so in the past. Assessment focus: identification of the specific impacts of human actions.

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.