This practical task assesses students' understanding of the different features of the vertebrate groups. Students need to identify the larger group that their animal card belongs too, then work with other students with the same group to write down all the features of that group.
Task: Identify the features of three animals, name their classification group, and answer two questions comparing features of the groups. Assessment focus: classification of animals.
Students are given four pictures, and are asked to draw a circle around the picture that is not a bird, and then give a reason for their choice. Similarly, they circle animals that are not mammals, fish, and molluscs.
Task: Describe on a chart how a duck's features help it to survive, then infer what might happen if these features were changed in some way. Assessment focus: how adaptations aid survival.
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: Design a plant that meets the criteria for a particular environment. Assessment focus: identifying specific features of a plant and explaining how they help it survive in its environment.
Students are provided with a map that has numbers on it representing various ash fall depths from a volcanic eruption. Students draw lines to link the similar numbers and answer questions about these. They also explain three major problems an ash fall could cause.
Students are provided with a table that gives them some properties of five different materials. They answer four short answer questions that involve interpreting information from the table.
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.
Use knowledge of insulation to answer questions about baked Alaska dessert, and how it compares to a chilly bin. Assessment focus: Interpreting diagrams, interpreting analogies, and using knowledge of insulation.
Task: Describe what happens to ice in a glass of water, giving reasons, and explain where water forming on the outside of the glass comes from. Assessment focus: changes of state.