Gould League - Food Webs - Secondary Activities

Food webs, Classification and Biodiversity

Additional secondary activities to accompany the Gould League Food webs, Classification and Biodiversity kit.

Survival

Level: 5 to 7
Curriculum Area: Science, SOSE

Background

This activity can be linked to Exploring Australian, African and Antarctic environments and Different species but one design from the Food webs, Classification and Biodiversity, Secondary Activities book.

Outcomes

Students

Identify general environmental characteristics of Australia, Africa and Antarctica
Make comparisons between Australia, Africa and Antarctica
Identify adaptations and strategies that allow animals to survive in their environments.

Materials and preparation

African, Australian and Antarctic picture cut-outs grouped by their environment and other reference information about animals - reference books, the internet, species information from the Gould League Food webs, Classification and Biodiversity kit, whiteboard and blackboard.

Method

Divide the class into three groups and ask each group to undertake research on each environment. When students have gathered some information guide a class discussion asking students about the major features of the Antarctic, Australian and African environments.

Include questions such as - What would the climate be like? Would there be seasonal or unexpected variations in climate that might impact on the survival of animals? Also include in the discussion other factors such as the presence of predators. Write this information on the board for reference. For example:

Australia	Africa	Antarctica
Heat in summer - bushfires	heat	Intense cold
drought	periods of drought	wet
Cold in winter	wet seasons	Short summers (breeding seasons)
Variety of landscapes, woodland trees, shrubs, rocky outcrops	Variety of landscapes, woodland trees, shrubs, rocky outcrops, grasslands	Ice platforms that break away from main Antarctic continent
Predators active at night and during the day (dingo/fox eagle. Falcon)	Many predators that are active at night and during the day including big cats, hunting dog	Predators - aerial (skuas that prey on injured or young birds and eggs) and marine - (killer whales, fish, seals and penguins)
	Human hunters

Divide the class into small groups. Give each group two or three animals from each environment and ask groups to identify key survival strategies and adaptations that enable the animals to cope with living in their particular environment. At this stage, students may like to refer to references.

Some survival strategies include:

Coping with drought - animals 'migrate' to find sources of water and fresh food; kangaroos and wallabies can keep developing embryos in a dormant state until conditions improve.

Coping with cold - animals can become torpid (not as deep a state as hibernation) over cold winter months to reduce their need for food, penguins huddle in groups, animals such as seals lay down deposits of fat, animals such as whales migrate to warmer areas.

Coping with predators - various strategies and adaptations including camouflage, escaping down burrows or out-running/out-jumping predators, herding behaviour (wildebeest and zebra).

Coping with heat - remaining inactive during the day and becoming active at night.

Extension

As survival strategies are identified, the class could then look at identifying animals in each environment that share similar survival strategies and adaptations.

Note: there would be a number of ways of grouping the animals so there is really no right or wrong answers, a suggestion would just have to be justified to the class' satisfaction.