Creature Classification - Birds - Stages 4-5 Teacher Notes

Students investigate birds in a self-guided activity in the Birds and Insects exhibition on Level 2.

Before Your Visit

• Excursion essentials - booking, free teacher's pass, lunch and practical tips

Students explore the shape of birds’ bills and feet as one means of classifying them. They use their research to suggest how these characteristics can provide information about the habitat, diet and means of collecting food for some Australian birds.

Syllabus links

Prescribed Focus Areas

4/5.2 the nature and practice of science

• e) use examples which show that scientists isolate a set of observations, identify trends and patterns and construct hypotheses or models to explain these

Knowledge and Understanding

4.8.2 classification

• a) classify living things according to structural features and identify that they have patterns of similarities and differences
• b) identify a range of plants and animals using simple keys

Additional Content

Classification -design simple keys to identify a range of living things

4.8.4 multicellular organisms

• a) identify that there is a wide range of multicellular organisms

Skills

• 4/5.15 uses given criteria to gather first-hand data
• 4/5.16 accesses information from identified secondary sources
• 4/5.19 draws conclusions based on information available
• 4/5.20 uses an identified strategy to solve problems
• 4/5.22 undertakes a variety of individual and team tasks
• 4/5.22.1 working individually
• 4/5.22.2 working in teams

Pre-visit activities

To ensure that students make the most of their time while doing this activity we recommend that they have, at least, a basic knowledge of the following:

• classification is the grouping of organisms based on their similarities or differences
• animals can be grouped according to where they live, what they eat and how they get their food

Photocopying

One copy of Creature Classification - Birds - Stages 4-5 Student Activities will be required for each student.
 

Ms Helen Wheeler , Education Project Officer
Last Updated: 24 February 2010