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Task: Answer questions about a key for metals: Assessment focus: recognising the purpose of a specific key.

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

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: Use a diagram and fact file to answer questions about sharks' fins. Assessment focus: adaptations of sharks to facilitate movement in water.

Task: Select which state of water applies to a list of places where water can be found. Assessment focus: states of water.

Students interpret two cartoon-style drawings of the enhanced greenhouse effect and write a short description of the artist’s message, as they see this.

Answer questions about rubbish picked up on a beach, and suggest reasons why plastic is the most common rubbish.

Task: Students answer questions about a soil food web. Assessment focus: reading a food web, systems thinking.

Task: Students answer questions about a Southern Ocean food web. Assessment focus: interpreting food webs.

Task: Choose images to enhance a science text about an adaptation of kererū, compare the messages of images, and reflect on the role of illustrations in science texts. Assessment focus: using and interpreting images in science texts.

Task: Answer questions about a table comparing the energy usage and lifespan of different sorts of lights, and use this information to complete a second table to describe advantages and disadvantages of each. Assessment focus: reading a technical table.

Task: Use understandings about heat energy and insulation to describe how adaptations help Emperor penguins survive in Antarctica. Assessment focus: adaptations for keeping warm in cold conditions.

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 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: 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 first do the science activity Throwing Balloons 2 (PW2548) where they predict, observe, and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Then the students do this writing task where they describe the balloon and what happened when it was thrown, and explain why they think it moved the way it did. Six annotated exemplars of student scripts (writing) are included under the "Working with Students" tab.

Task: Match birds and nests, and explain why the choice was made. Assessment focus: using environmental cues to make inferences.

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: 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.

Task: describe what would happen to four items of food when left in the sun. Assessment focus: change.

Task: Identify the variables for testing how fresh water and salt water affect rusting. Assessment focus: planning a fair test.

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

This task assesses student ability to find the text features of a science report about moa.

Task: Look for the similarities and differences in how students draw graphs to display information.