Book 4

Animal Life Histories: Reproduction, Growth, and Change

Synopsis

Animal Life Histories focuses on the process of growth and change that all animals undergo in their journey from fertilised egg to adulthood. Students can readily observe life's physical stages in people, pets, and other common kinds of animals around them.

Studying animals' life histories is a good entry point for building concepts about how living things develop (including metamorphosis) and survive - within their own lifetimes and through adaptations over the evolution of generations. It is also an opportunity to reinforce the idea that, in science, the word "animal" applies equally to such living things as mammals (including people), reptiles, fish, crustaceans, birds, spiders, snails, shellfish, insects, and worms.

Levels: 1-4

Strand: Living World

Achievement aim:
AA3: Investigate and understand how organisms grow, reproduce, and change over generations.

Concept overview

Use the concept overview, which is also on the inside front cover of the book, as a reference for the concepts that relate to Animal Life Histories: Reproduction, Growth, and Change.

• The concepts are the building blocks for the column: each column is defined by a "big idea".
• The arrows show the links between concepts and how they might build in sequence. Teachers can choose to develop a narrow focus by moving up the template or a broad focus by following arrows across.
• Each "big idea" shows how a fully developed understanding of the supporting concepts might look. Such an understanding might not be achieved until level 7 or 8. The big ideas are included here to help you build appropriate concepts with your students, whatever their age.

Read the concept overview. To view it, you will need Acrobat Reader.

A picture pack is available in schools to support activities in the book.

Writers – Rosemary Hipkins, Peter Llewellyn
Specialist Adviser – Dr Bob Brockie

Links with other titles in the series

Book 3. Birds (level 1-4, Living World: AA2)
Book 6. Soil Animals (Level 1-4, Living World: AA4)
Book 21. What Lives at the Beach? (Level 1-2, Living World: AA4)
Book 22. The Beach Community (Level 3-4, Living World: AA4)
Book 39. Slugs and Snails (Level 1-4, Living World: AA1, AA2, AA4)
Book 43. Spring (Level 1-2, Living World: AA3; Planet Earth and Beyond: AA3)
Book 52. Is This an Animal? (Level 1-2, Living World: AA1)
Book 56. Mammals (Level 3-4, Living World: AA1)
Book 62. Spiders Everywhere! (Level 3-4, Living World: AA1, AA2, AA4)

Assessment resources

Visit the 'Building Science Concept' page on the Assessment Resource Banks (ARB) website to find ARB resources that assess the 'big idea' learning outcomes referred to in the concept overview for this title.