Students look closely at a photograph taken on the beach and record their observations. They think and write about the consequences of the things they see.
Task: Identify features of 4 animals that live in water, then use this information to decide whether they are fish or not. Assessment focus: classification of fish.
Students are provided with a situation where the bank on the school field is eroding. They are asked to write a plan for a tree-planting programme that would help to slow down the erosion.
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.
Task: Discuss opinions, presented as a concept cartoon, about why a toy car rolled down a slope eventually stops and develop group explanation. Assessment focus: explanations
Students are provided with a diagram and asked to identify the type of geological process that it represents. Students are also required to explain what happened.
Students are provided with two star maps as seen from Wellington at two different times of the year. Students are asked to explain why the stars on the map appear in different parts of the sky depending on the time of the year.
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 an area of native bush and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in a native bush environment.
For this practical task students use their knowledge about the properties of gases to explain their observations when they blow up a balloon that is inside a bottle and a balloon that is not inside a bottle.
Students use a diagram of a circuit to answer questions about which bulbs are in parallel and which are in series. Students are also required to put a switch into the circuit diagram provided.
Task: Answer questions about a monarch butterfly's life cycle. Assessment focus: insect life cycle.
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