Desert survivors addresses AC Science Understanding ACSSU043 Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment, through the context of exploring how living things survive in desert environments.
Desert survivors provides students with hands-on opportunities to:
- explore how plants lose water through their leaves
- investigate how surface area affects the rate of water and heat loss
- draw conclusions about what water loss might mean for plants and animals in the desert
- investigate camouflage and how it may help animals survive in the desert and discuss why some animals are not camouflaged
- examine if structural features of animals are helpful adaptations for surviving in their environment
Students apply their new learning by:
- designing, planning and conducting an investigation to see if features of an animal are structural adaptions that help it to survive in a desert environment
Linking science with literacy
In the Primary Connections approach, students are supported to create representations that draw on and strengthen their literacy development. In Desert survivors, students represent and explain their understanding about how Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment, by creating these representations:
- Annotated drawing
- Graph
- Oral presentation
- Summary
- Data table
- TWLH chart
- Word wall