Animal Adaptation
Phase of Development: Early Childhood
The following matrix describes the key learning area outcomes that were spotlighted in this unit of work. It should be recognised that many other outcomes, from these and other learning areas, will also be achieved during the course of the unit.
Learning Area Outcomes
Curriculum Framework | Strand Statements
Outcomes & Standards Framework |
Society & Environment
Investigation, Communication & Participation
Students investigate the way in which people interact with each other and with their environments in order to make informed decisions and implement relevant social action. |
Science
Life & Living
Students understand their own biology and that of other living things, and recognise the interdependence of life. |
English
Writing
Students write for a range of purposes and in a range of forms using conventions appropriate to audience, purpose and context.
Reading
Students read a wide range of texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness.
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Brief Description
| Author: | Leonie McIlvenny, Fremantle Education District |
| Description: | The unit provided students with the opportunity to identify the special features of animals that allow them to adapt and change to survive in different environments. While a polar and desert environment were chosen, other environments could be used (e.g. local bushland, rainforest). This unit has been designed for the Early Childhood Phase of Development.
The Information Process was used as the framework for developing information literacy and efforts were made to link this process with the Investigation, Communication and Participation strand from Society and Environment. The main integration occurred in using the Process strand from Society and Environment to develop concepts articulated in the Life and Living Strand from Science. Click here to see resource charts which link the Investigating, Communication and Participation stages to the Information process. |
Introduction
This unit was developed as part of an action research project designed to focus on key principles from the Curriculum Improvement Program.
What is the Curriculum Improvement Program?
It was an opportunity for me to have a go at exploring my understandings of outcomes-based education and how it translated into classroom practice. I also wanted to introduce the children to some process and collaborative skills. Key areas of focus included:
- Planning the program using the outcomes statements.
- Developing a working portfolio for the students which would be shared with parents.
- Encouraging collaborative group work.
- Focusing on inquiry as a process for learning.
- Using open-ended tasks.
- Exploring a variety of learning technologies.
- Exploring a variety of assessment practices including self-assessment.
- Providing opportunities for children to reflect on their learning.
Context
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The Students: |
This project was carried out with 15 Year 2 students of mixed abilities. |
| Timeline: |
The project developed over a five week period in 1 hour lessons. |
| Learning technologies used: |
- CD-ROM (for information retrieval)
- OPAC searches in the library
- Internet (for information retrieval)
- Phone/fax (to contact experts)
- Video (for viewing activities - information retrieval)
- Kid Pix (for multimedia presentations)
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Objectives
(For a description of the place of objectives in an outcomes-based environment, click here.)
- Students will develop skills that allow them to evaluate the effectiveness of resources for their purpose.
- Students will explore the food chain in a polar or desert region and identify where their chosen animal fits into that food chain.
- Students will create a polar or desert animal that exhibits realistic adaptive features (based on those established in their initial research) that would allow it to survive in a polar or desert environment and place it in the appropriate food chain.
- Students will predict the impact their "invented" animal would have on the rest of the food chain (as an introduced species).
- Students will explore a variety of learning technology tools as they search for and apply information.
Learning Experiences
Stage 1: Immersion
Children listened to the story Lord Rex the Lion Who Wished or A Nice Walk in the Jungle.
I asked them, Why are animals different?
I then asked, Why are these features different in different animals? (Click here for two interesting responses from the children.)
We then identified features of animals in the story that allowed them to do different things. We brainstormed features of known animals and what each adaptation is for.
I suggested that they were going to be exploring animals that live in very hot (desert) and very cold (polar) climates to see how they have specially adapted to living in their harsh environment.
I set up resource work stations within the classroom which allowed students the opportunity to explore polar (Antarctic) and desert (Australian) animals.
Resource Work Stations
I decided to bring the resources to the children rather than have them locate items in the library. This not only saved time but ensured that there were adequate and appropriate resources for the children to locate their information. In another lesson I may focus specifically on locating resources in the library. The variety of resources also helped cater to children's differing learning styles.
Resources at the work stations included:
- Bookmarked websites.
- Video
- CD-ROM, Encyclopedia and Digital Stories
- Print Resources (including posters and charts)
I divided the children into two groups - one polar, one desert. Each group was to retrieve information at each of the work stations, identifying polar or desert animals and the characteristics peculiar to each animal.
We listed the animal names on a T-Chart.
They viewed the resources with the following focus questions in mind:
After the initial exploration each child selected an animal to research. But before the students went further in their research, I felt we needed to focus on developing skills that would allow them to evaluate the effectiveness of resources they used, including books, videos and Internet sites, and to begin developing a bibliography.
Stage 2: Evaluating Usefulness of Resources
This stage involved the children evaluating the effectiveness of their resources. As this was the first time the children had done this type of activity, we focused on non-fiction books, but the same activity could be done with any other resource type, including the Internet.
- I provided each child with a book related to the topic, suggesting that there are features of a book which help us to find information.
- We brainstormed these features and listed them on the board (Title, Table of Contents, index, glossary, bolded key words, page numbers, illustrations with captions, diagrams, photographs etc.).
- Using the criteria in the table below the children evaluated their books, giving them one point for each criterion identified. In pairs, small groups and then as a whole class we identified which books were the most useful. Click here for one student's response to this activity.
The following table was useful in recording the range of resources that students used, both at an individual and group level.
| Criteria |
Book |
CD-ROM |
Video |
Internet |
| Title |
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| Illustrations |
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| Useful information |
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| Special equipment needed |
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| I can understand it |
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| Easy to use | | | | |
Students also kept a bibliography of the resources they used for the activity.
Stage 3: Identifying Focus Questions
To guide their investigation the students and I worked together to formulate a series of key words and focus questions.
- What does it eat? (Food)
- Where does it live? (Habitat)
- What are its enemies? (Enemies)
- How does it protect itself? (Protection)
- How does it keep warm/cool? (Adaptation)
The keywords and questions formed the basis for the headings on a class semantic grid. Click here to see an example.
Note
In activities like these, the children's reading ability and the available resources will determine their degree of independence in extracting appropriate information. They may need to be assisted to make meaning from the texts through, for example:
- A modelled lesson.
- Watching a video.
- Listening to the information read orally.
- Working with a buddy or a parent helper.
Stage 4: Evaluating and Applying Findings
Based on the information that the children had gathered individually they could then:
- Write a report on an individual animal.
- Prepare a powerpoint or kidpix presentation of their animal.
- Create a food chain for that environment using the animals that have been researched.
- Identify the special adaptive features of one animal-how they keep warm or cool, how they find their food and how they protect themselves.
Stage 5: Creating Based on Their Findings
The criteria developed in the previous stage then formed the basis for the children creating their own imaginary polar or desert animal.
Before children began creating their own animals we discussed the key information that had to be included in their presentation.
| Design Brief for Task
When creating your own animal it must:
- Have realistic features.
- Fit into the appropriate desert or polar food chain.
- Be described using the characteristic features outlined in the semantic grid (i.e. food, enemies, protection, habitat, how it keeps cool/warm etc).
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Children had to predict what might have occurred if their animal was actually introduced into the food chain.
I gave them the opportunity to present their information digitally, orally, pictorially, in model form or in written form. I also organised an opportunity to celebrate their learning.
Student Reflection
As part of the program children were involved in ongoing reflection of their learning both individually and as a group. Reflection time was embedded into each lesson, reviewing the content of previous lessons and planning for follow-up.
It included oral and written work, as well as small group and whole class reflection.
 Assessment
Assessment needs to be embedded into the learning opportunities provided using this research task. Evidence of the achievement may be found in one or more of the following:
- A working portfolio containing all individual planning documents.
- Group charts - initialed post-it notes will provide evidence of a child's contribution to a group task.
- Observations of activities documented as a checklist or anecdotal comments.
- Criteria-based assessment sheets. An example.
- Completion of the semantic grid.
- Final product produced by individual student.
- Self/peer/teacher assessment of invented animal (e.g. whether it meets the set criteria and or fits into the food chain).
- Group PMI of effectiveness of resources to obtain information for the task (including the students' bibliography).
- Lesson reflection sheets written in journals, which take into account all aspects of the process.
- Checklists of learning technologies used individually and collaboratively.
My Reflection - Did I achieve what I set out to do?
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Planning the program using the outcomes statements
Yes I was able to link the teaching learning program directly with outcomes from the S&E, Science and English Learning Areas. This was documented before the commencement of the unit of work. |
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Helping the students develop working portfolio that they would share with parents
The children developed portfolios which contained all of their working documents. These included reflection sheets, notemaking sheets, writing drafts as well as the finished product. A cover sheet was attached to the portfolio to explain the contents to parents. I received significant positive feedback from parents who engaged enthusiastically with their children's work. |
| Encouraging collaborative group work
Children were given many opportunities to work in pairs.
Children were also given opportunities to work as part of the whole class.
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| Focusing on inquiry as a process for learning
I followed the six stages of the Information Process throughout the research task with the children. I was also able to make links to the Investigation, Communication and Participation Strand of the Society & Environment Outcomes and Standards Framework.
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| Using open-ended tasks
Because students created their own animals and presented them in a format of their choice, they were able to demonstrate outcomes at their own levels. By giving a basic set of criteria or non-negotiables a minimum was established; however, this didn't stop students from including much more information if they so chose.
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| Exploring a variety of learning technologies
As this was one of my first forays into using technology in an integrated way I established very structured procedures for students to access and use the technology.
The resource work stations worked very well and although they took a lot of time to set up, the quality of the information the children extracted compensated for the effort. I now also have a that I can share with other colleagues.
For this unit of work the focus of technology use was mainly in the area of extracting information for research purposes; however, in future lessons I would like to allow greater exploration and experimentation with multimedia software. I would also like to make more use of the phone and fax as sources for locating information.
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| Exploring a variety of assessment practices including self assessment
I found this to be a very challenging exercise but it provided me with an opportunity to experiment with different strategies for obtaining evidence about children's achievement of outcomes.
I found the most useful strategy was to identify the specific outcomes to be achieved before the unit was taught and to link these to the strand outcomes in the relevant learning areas. Then I placed these on the Criteria for Assessment Sheet. This formed the basis for the collection of evidence and provided a useful overview for parents in the portfolios.
With older children I would provide this sheet to them prior to the unit of work allowing them the opportunity to know exactly what they are to be assessed on . In other words the criteria for assessment would be explicit.
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| Providing opportunities for children to reflect on their learning
Throughout the whole unit I provided a structure for children to reflect on their work, including:
At first they found it quite difficult to do as they hadn't done anything like it before, but they were soon able to summarise key events or understandings in a lesson, suggest what needed to be done next, and talk about their own learning in a very fundamental way.
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Conclusion
I found the planning and implementation of this unit to be most rewarding in many ways. Not only did it provide me with the opportunity to explore many new ideas and practices related to the implementation of the Curriculum Framework and Outcomes and Standards Framework; it also allowed me to see first hand, with the help of technology, how many of the principles espoused in those documents, when embedded in the learning program, do make a significant difference to the learning that takes place.
Leonie McIlvenny
Fremantle Education District
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