Classification and Adaptations Year 7-8

Connect 

Use the activities in the Teaching Guide (below) to spark students’ curiosity before their zoo visit.

Connect and Understand 

During your Zoo Teacher workshop, students visit zoo habitats and explore artefacts to classify species based on their role within an ecosystem. By constructing food webs, students gain understanding of the relationships between species and the impact of humans on habitats and ecosystems. This understanding highlights the importance of healthy environments and the need for conservation programs in a real-world context.

Your zoo visit includes: An introduction to the day (for arrivals between 9.45 – 10am), Zoo Teacher workshop (30 minutes), Safari Bus Tour (40 minutes) and keeper talks. Check out your Teaching Guide for other ideas of what to do at the zoo.  

Understand 

Use activities in the Teaching Guide to deepen students’ learning back at school.

Act 

Use the Teaching Guide to enable students to master their knowledge and skills in real-world contexts.

There are differences within and between groups of organisms; classification helps organise this diversity (VCSSU091)

• Students learn how to group organisms based on trophic levels according to their position in the food web and their role in energy transfer within ecosystems

Interactions between organisms can be described in terms of food chains and food webs and can be affected by human activity (VCSSU093)

• Students learn about the fragile nature of food webs, the roles of megafauna and macrofauna and how humans can have a positive or negative impact on an environment.

Use scientific knowledge and findings from investigations to identify relationships, evaluate claims and draw conclusions (VCSIS111)

• After constructing an African food web, students apply their skills to draw conclusions about interactions and interdependencies between species within an ecosystem.