Background information – habitats What is a habitat? A habitat is where an organism lives and has all its survival needs met. It is where an animal can find food, shelter and enough water for survival. It is where plants have the right amount of sunlight, water and nutrients to grow. A healthy habitat is a place where plants and animals live harmoniously together without overpopulation, or depletion of water or food resources. Types of habitats Every habitat is different depending on the organism being considered. An ant’s habitat is going to be much smaller than the habitat for a bird that may fly long distances from its nest to find food. However, the two habitats may overlap and have common elements that make up an ecosystem. They may also be dependent on each other for survival. Importance of healthy habitats Healthy habitats lead to healthy ecosystems. An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals that live, feed and interact together in a specific area. The Millennium Assessment Report () uses the definition "An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit." Within an ecosystem are multiple habitats for specific organisms. An ecosystem may be large, such as a rainforest, a reef, or even the ocean with all its interconnecting elements. Or it may be smaller, such as a lake or a small island. For an ecosystem to be healthy, habitats within the ecosystem need to be healthy.
Lessons 2 and 3: What things are in our local habitats? Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes Suggested learning sequence Introduction – Preparation The aim of these two lessons is to expose students to as many different habitats as possible and gather images that will be used in a class display (lesson 4) and explored in future lessons. Depending on time available and opportunities, these two lessons may involve: a photographic exploration of habitats within the school grounds a photographic exploration of a local habitat such as a rainforest, creek, rocky shore, mangrove etc. a visit from a local environmental officer e.g. for the local catchment group providing information and images of a local habitat they look after class research about local or other habitats e.g. on the Great Barrier Reef (See ‘Useful web links’ for a poster of the Great Barrier Reef). See the steps below for photographic explorations e.g. in the school grounds. Example sequence – Photographing habitats Review the same book as in Lesson 1. Discuss with the students that the home of the animal is its habitat. The animal’s habitat is where it has shelter, food and water provided. These are the animal’s needs. In the discussion ask the students to identify one or more animals from the book and describe the animal’s habitat by stating where the animal finds food, shelter and water. Ask the students where animal habitats are around the school (e.g. garden beds, trees, lawn, sandpit, vegetable patch, underneath buildings). Discuss what animals be found around the school grounds and where they might live. Write students’ ideas down and plan together what should be photographed and by whom. If the school has multiple cameras available, students could be split into groups to photograph particular parts of the school. Note: If technology is not available to take and photos, have the students each draw/sketch a habitat within the school. Photograph or sketch each of the habitats discussed. Take multiple photos or sketches of each habitat from different distances and at different angles. For example, if it is a certain shrub or tree, take photos or sketch the leaves, branches, roots, surrounding area and animals seen in the habitat. Discuss and summarise with students what they observed and photographed or sketched around the school. When returning to the classroom, print photos if required to have them ready for lesson 4. Opportunities to monitor student learning
Lesson 5: What are the features and needs of plants? Duration: 50 minutes Suggested learning sequence Introduction – what are the features of plants? Put different pot plants around the room. Look at photographs or sketches from lesson 2 of any parts of plants. Ask students to describe what they know about the common features of plants e.g. stem/trunk, leaves, roots, shoots, flower. Explain to students the rules for drawing a scientific drawing i.e. a clear title use a sharp pencil labels and label lines horizontal use a ruler for label lines do not use arrows for label lines try not to cross label lines Have students carefully observe then draw a labelled drawing of their plant. When complete, have students compare their observations and diagrams with others. What similarities and differences do they see? Discuss the purpose for each of common plant features in terms of the needs of plants e.g. roots obtaining water. Activity – Seedling investigation class set-up Explain to the students that you are going run a class experiment to investigate the needs of plants. Step through the procedural text for the seedling investigation with the students (see Resource 3 – Procedural text – Seedling investigation). To save time, have the four set-ups ready to show the students. Discuss with students one thing that is being changed, what is being measured (e.g. growth) and what is being kept the same in set-ups 2, 3 and 4. Note that set-up 1 is called a control and is used as a comparison. Create and display a large class POE chart that is big enough to record regular growth observations as photos or sketches (see Resource 4 - POE chart as an example). Use the class POE chart (See Resource 4 - POE chart) to generate a class discussion about what students predict will happen to the seedlings in the different situations. Record class predictions in the chart. Add new to the word wall (See Resource 1 – Word bank for examples of vocabulary). Write/draw in science journal reflections and observations. (See Resource 2 – Student reflections for examples of sentence starters you can use to guide student reflections). Seedling Investigation – suggested observations through the unit Monitor the growth of the seedlings throughout the remainder of this unit. Rotate students to water plants regularly (except for the no water set-up). Have students take a photo of each every two or three days from exactly the same position to record growth.
Lesson 6: What are the features and of animals? Duration: 50 minutes Suggested learning sequence Introduction – Class discussion on animal features Review the habitat displays from Lesson 4. Choose three to four local animals that can be discussed. Select and find photographs of two to three additional animals from a range of land and water-based habitats e.g. fish, turtle, kangaroo or lizard. See ‘Useful web links’ for animal photographs. Create a class table listing all the animals you are going to discuss. Decide as a class the habitat each animal lives in and write that down. Animal name Habitat animal is found in External features How the animal moves What the animal eats Worm Dirt, compost heap Skin, mouth Wiggles It eats dirt Display a photograph of the first animal. As a class, discuss its main external features and list these in the table. Alternatively you could stick an image of the animal to the table and label the features. Identify how the animal and eats and add this information to the table. Discuss how the features of this animal help it to move and eat in the habitat it lives in. Discuss the needs of this animal i.e. shelter, food and water and how they are provided by its habitat. The following general questions could help guide this discussion: What is this feature called? What do you the job of this feature is? What does it do? Can you think of other animals you know of with a similar feature? What does this animal eat? How does this animal move? How does this feature help the animal move? How does this feature help the animal eat? What does this animal need to live and survive? How are these needs provided by the habitat it lives in? Continue the class discussion with a new animal. Ask students to compare features. For example: how is this feature similar to animals? How is it different? Activity – Describe your animal Group students and provide them with a picture of a new animal and the habitat they live in that you have listed in the table. Ask students to observe the animal and as a group, decide on and label its features and think about how it moves and eats. When ready, have each group share their ideas in turn about their animal and complete the table together. Ask the class to compare features to other animals. Ask the class to think about how each animal has its need met in the habitat it lives in. For example, how is this feature similar to other animals? How is it different? What does this animal need to live and survive?
How are needs provided by the habitat it lives in? Identify the gaps in the table that cannot be filled by current student knowledge e.g. the name of certain features or what an animal eats. These gaps could be researched during class time or set as homework. Remember to also take time to observe the seedlings from Lesson 5. Take a few minutes with students to reflect on what is happening to the plants. How well are the plants growing? Are some growing better than others? Why? What do you think are the needs of plants? Add new words to the word wall. (See Resource 1 – Word bank for examples of vocabulary). Write/draw observations and reflections in the science journal. (See Resource 2 – Student reflections for examples of sentence starters you can use to guide student reflections). Optional/additional activity – Create an animal Explain to students that they are to make up and create their own animal as a labelled drawing. Students decide and label the external features of their animal and think about the habitat this animal would live in. Have students draw their animal and label its features. Students can give the animal a name. Guide students to think about: the purpose of external features e.g. how they help the animal eat and move in its habitat the needs of this animal e.g. water, food and shelter and how they are provided by the habitat it lives in. Have students share their animal and its external features and explain the purpose of these features. Ask students to describe what are the needs of this animal and how they are provided by the habitat e.g. water, food and shelter. Display the animal drawings/labelled images. Alternative optional activity – Create digital animals Visit the website with students and demonstrate how they can create their own animals. Discuss with students the different body parts and external features available to create animals. Students then create their own Switcheroozoo animal, explain its external features and describe a habitat suitable for the created animal. The animals can be printed out and displayed with the students’ explanation of external features and habitat.
Lesson 7: How is our school habitat affected by people and what can we do to care for this habitat? Duration: 50 minutes Suggested learning sequence Introduction – Human impacts Look back at photos of school habitats taken in Lessons 2 and 3 (or if need be, take a walk around school grounds to observe), to identify and discuss any ways that humans have impacted on those habitats. Examples of impacts include: pollution littering tree clearing creation of garden beds planting more trees raking of leaves pathways being created mowing lawns buildings being constructed. Activity – Positive and negative impacts Write each of the impacts identified onto sticky notes so they can be sorted into positive and negative. On a large chart, have two columns – positive and negative. As a class, discuss each impact and sort into these two columns. This will take some discussion as students will need to draw logical conclusions. Discuss how some negative changes to habitats can mean that living things e.g. plants and animals in that habitat, no longer have needs met. You can use some of the animals in Lesson 6 as examples. Choose one of the human impacts you have listed to demonstrate with students how to complete a chart. (See Resource 6 – chart). Show how students could use both drawing and writing to fill in the chart. Individually or in pairs, have students create their own cause-and-effect charts using a different impact from the list. Alternatively, students could use different examples e.g. from habitats in their local community or their own home. Ask to share their chart with the class. As a class, look again at the negative column. Discuss and write down ways to improve some of the negatives. Ask students to propose ways to care for this habitat and maintain it as a healthy habitat. Link student to how these changes allow the needs of plants and animals to be met. Students will need to think of ways to improve negative impacts for their final assessment piece. Remember to also take time to observe the seedlings from Lesson 5. Take a few minutes with students to reflect on what is happening to the plants. How well are the plants growing? Are some growing better than others? Why do you think that? Add new words to the word wall. (See Resource 1 – Word bank for examples of vocabulary).
Resource 2 – Student reflections Consider displaying sentence starters or questions such as below in the classroom. Alternatively, they could be turned into laminated thought bubbles that are passed to students directly. Students could choose two or three thoughts to complete in their journal then share their responses with the class. End of lesson reflections Guiding students to reflect on their own thinking Today I discovered…. I want to know more about… Something new I out was… I am excited about… Something I am finding interesting is… The most challenging thing was… I am most proud of…. I feel confident about … I am enjoying ……because … I am confused by… Today I asked… A question I have is… I am starting to differently about… I got stuck when …..and I got back on track by … I figured out that ….. I solved a problem by … I first thought……but then I realised that …. This idea is useful for…. Some things I didn’t understand are…To help me understand better I will…. Before I didn’t know ….Now I realise/know….. Reflecting on stewardship and taking action End of unit reflections – where I was and where I am now This information can make a difference by… It is important to know about this because… Something I will now do as a result of my learning is … Something I want to do next is…. Something I will now help others understand is … I can make a difference by … An action I/we can take is… If we don’t …… the consequences be … It is important to …because…. I used to think… Now I know… This causes me to (re)think/ wonder… Revisit your first journal entry, what do you understand now that you didn’t back then? Review your work so far. What has been the biggest discovery/learning/challenge? Reconsider your initial ideas. Have your ideas changed? If so how? I didn’t know how to… Now I can… In the future I will…
Resource 4 – POE chart A large POE chart such as the one below can be displayed in class for the seedling investigation. Set up Predict Observe [photos/notes/sketches] Explain Control We predict that…. Because … What happened? Why? No water We predict that…. Because … What happened? Why? No soil We predict that…. Because … What happened? Why? No We predict that…. Because … What happened? Why?