Students predict the outcome of throwing five dice and confirm their predictions by conducting an experiment and calculating probabilities. After discussing how to get better estimates, they pool their results with others to get a more accurate estimate of how good their predictions were.
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.
Students write a set of instructions after reading a science article about growing crystals. Students assess their own writing using the supports provided.
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.
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.
Task: Students fill in a chart to select the best material for making 6 objects, and give reasons for their answers. Assessment focus: properties of materials related to use.
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.
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.