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MAKING SENSE OF THE LIVING WORLD: LEVEL 4

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES

Students can
  1. investigate and classify closely related living things on the basis of easily observable features, e.g., mussel, pipi, cockle; little spotted kiwi, brown kiwi; blue whale, pilot whale, sperm whale; breeds of cat, dog, horse; kowhai, kaka beak; rata, pohutukawa;
  2. investigate and describe special features of animals or plants which help survival into the next generation;
  3. investigate and describe patterns in the variability of a visible physical feature found within a species, e.g., coat colour in cats, feather colour in budgerigars, human fingerprints, leaf shape and colour;
  4. use simple food chains to explain the feeding relationships of familiar animals and plants, and investigate effects of human intervention on these relationships, e.g., lettuce leaf, snail, thrush; pollution, food production for people.

SAMPLE LEARNING CONTEXTS

  • Bugs and beetles
  • Waiora
  • Fishing
  • Our polluted stream
  • Farming
  • Tangaroa
  • First aid
  • New Zealand and introduced animals and plants
  • Te ngahere
  • Jabs and shots
  • Nga kai Māori
  • Maramataka Māori
  • Living foods
  • Nga kaimoana
  • Bush
  • Estuary
  • Pond
  • Swamp
  • Agricultural and horticultural management

POSSIBLE LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Students could be learning by:

  • conducting a field survey in the school grounds, bush, scrub, roadside, or zoo to observe the main features of a variety of animals and their feeding habits;
  • visiting the SPCA to find out about a range of different types of cats and dogs;
  • collecting seeds, pods, berries, and nuts to find out about some of the ways seeds form and are dispersed;
  • keeping small animals or pets that reproduce, recording life-cycle changes, food preferences, weight gain, and behaviour;
  • recording over time the behaviour of a mother guinea pig caring for her litter ;
  • using magnifying glasses to observe the release of spores when fertile fern leaves are warmed gently with a lamp;
  • caring for a colony of breeding rats with different coloured coats;
  • drawing pie graphs to represent the proportion of selected characteristics of the students in the class, e.g., hair colour, eye colour;
  • using magazine pictures to categorise foods we eat
  • investigating plants as food sources for people and animals;
  • collecting newspaper articles to find out about an environmental issue;
  • debating a global conservation issue to develop an awareness of the possible consequences of human activity on other living things;
  • visiting a local recreation area to collect data about the impact of people on the area;
  • inviting a kuia or koroua to demonstrate and explain how Māori kai (for example, kanga wai, kumara tao, kanga waru, paraoa rewena) is prepared;
  • making bread with yeast as an example of how people use other living things to produce their food;
  • using yoghurt starter cultures to prepare their own yoghurt to demonstrate people's use of other living things;
  • researching and examining some of the solutions to pollution on land and sea;
  • researching background information and debating the statement 'There should be an open season for gathering shellfish at the local beach.'

ASSESSMENT EXAMPLES

Teachers and students could assess the students':

  • ability to identify by using external features, when the students place given animals and plants in appropriate groups, using a pictorial identification key;
  • ability to identify ways different plants disperse their seeds, when the students collect fruit and seeds and explain their method of dispersal;
  • understanding of structural changes which occur during reproductive cycles, when the students draw a flow diagram to show these changes;
  • understanding of the variability of coat colour in an animal species, when the students discuss the coat colour of guinea pigs or horses;
  • knowledge of animal food sources, when the students make a chart or draw three-link chain diagrams to demonstrate these relationships;
  • ability to identify feeding relationships, when the students construct a harakeke food web from observations and research;
  • understanding of a community conservation issue, when the students write a letter to the editor about litter in a local recreation area.

 

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