Science at key stage 3 (Year 8)

Unit 8D: Ecological relationships
Section 4: How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? a) How can we collect data to answer questions about a habitat? (1)

Objectives

Children should learn:

how to frame questions that can be investigated
to use scientific knowledge and understanding to raise questions about habitats
to decide what data might be collected and how to present data
how to use ICT to measure and record environmental factors

Activities		Outcomes
		Children:
Organise fieldwork in a suitable location, eg woodland, pond, stream, school grounds, wall, paving stones, park, sand dunes, rocky shore, and discuss with pupils the questions they will try to answer during the work, eg What lives there? Why do communities differ in different habitats? How can we measure sizes of populations of living things? Ask pupils for ideas about data they will need to collect to answer the questions, how they will go about it and what they will do with the data collected when they return to school. Remind pupils of how to use dataloggers to collect remote data when outside, eg temperature variations, dissolved oxygen, light intensity and humidity, and how to produce graphs from the data collected. Discuss the formats to be used for presenting results in the fieldwork activity.		decide on questions to be investigated suggest data to be collected

Points to note

It is helpful if the locality chosen allows two contrasting habitats to be studied.
Pupils are likely to have used environmental sensors and computers to collect and display environmental data in unit 7C 'Environment and feeding relationships'.

Safety

all off-site visits must be carried out in accordance with employer's guidelines. Pupils' plans must be checked for health and safety before practical work begins

Sections in this unit

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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.


	1. How can animals be classified? (1)
	2. How can animals be classified? (2)
	3. How can green plants be classified?
	4. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? a) How can we collect data to answer questions about a habitat? (1)
	5. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? a) How can we collect data to answer questions about a habitat? (2)
	6. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? b) What lives there? (1)
	7. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? b) What lives there? (2)
	8. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? c) Why do the communities differ in different habitats? (1)
	9. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? c) Why do the communities differ in different habitats (2)
	10. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? c) Why do the communities differ in different habitats? (3)
	11. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? d) How big are the populations in the habitat? (1)
	12. How do plants, animals and environmental conditions interact in a habitat? d) How big are the populations in the habitat? (2)
	13. How do living things in a community depend on each other? (1)
	14. How do living things in a community depend on each other? (2)
	15. Reviewing work

Science at key stage 3 (Year 8)

Objectives

Activities

Outcomes

Points to note

Sections in this unit