Endangered or Threatened Species Science Inquiry

Criteria
Yr. 7 Science Understanding- Biological Sciences:

Classification helps organise the diverse group of organisms (ACSSU111)

 classifying using hierarchical systems such as kingdom, phylum, class, order, family,
genus, species.
 Considering the reasons for classifying such as identification and communication
(Critical & Creative Thinking- Identify and clarify information and ideas/ organise &
process information).

Yr. 7 Achievement Standard:

 Student’s predict the effect of human and environmental changes on interactions

between organisms and classify and organise diverse organisms based on
observable differences.
 Students identify questions that can be investigated scientifically.
 They communicate their ideas, methods and findings using scientific language and
appropriate representations.

Yr. 6 Science Understanding- Biological Sciences:

The growth and survival of living things are affected by physical conditions of their
environment (ACSSU094)

 Investigating how changing the physical conditions for plants impacts on their growth
and survival.

Yr. 6 Science Inquiry Skills- Questioning and Predicting:

With guidance, pose clarifying questions and make predictions about scientific investigations
(ACSIS232)

 Refining questions to enable scientific investigation.

 Asking questions to understand the scope or nature of a problem.

Yr. 6 Science as a Human Endeavour-Use & Influence of Science :

Scientific knowledge is used to solve problems and inform personal and community
decisions (ACSHE100)

Yr. 6 Achievement Standard:

 Students follow procedures to develop investigable questions and design

investigations into simple cause-and-effect relationships.
 They describe and analyse relationships in data using appropriate representations
and construct multimodal texts to communicate ideas, methods and findings.
 They describe and predict the effect of environmental changes on individual living
things.
Endangered or Threatened Species Science Inquiry
Criteria

Inquiry Ideas…

Key idea: Pose questions to investigate the cause and effect of endangered species.

 Students will understand the concept of endangered species and will research a
specific endangered animal. They will write a report using credible resources,
assemble a bibliography, as well as view and analyse examples of public service
announcements (PSAs). Then, using this knowledge, they will write and record their
own PSA and present their research to their peers in the form of an oral presentation
and brochure.
 PSA- intended to modify public attitudes by raising awareness about specific issues.

Key questioning…

 What are the major threats to your animal?

 What is being done to protect your animal?
 How is their food source impacting their endangerment?
 Where in the world can your animal be found?
 What are some interesting facts about your animal?
Endangered or Threatened Species Science Inquiry
Criteria
You will create an inquiry-based assessment on an endangered or threatened Australian animal. You will research

an endangered or threatened species you would like to research and write about based upon your findings of the

animal you observed at the Adelaide Zoo in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation, Poster or Written Report. You must

then create a public service announce to persuade and educate your chosen target audience on the cause and

effect of why your animal is endangered or threatened, and a possible solution to the problem.

Inquiry assessment format:

 PowerPoint Presentation

 Poster OR

 Written Report

In your assessment you will need to include:

 An introduction to the animal, its habitat, needs for survival and life cycle.

 Demonstrate your understanding of the taxonomy ranking system to identify your animal.

 A map that shows the population of your threatened or endangered animal.

 Include a written or graphical dichotomous key.

 Demonstrate your understanding of what a food web is, in connection to your animal.

 Cause-and-Effect of the main reasons your animal is endangered or threatened.

 Suggestions outlining what people can do to help the species survive.

 The kinds of present and future threats that your species faces, and how this could disrupt the food web.
 Human impact on the environmental changes that could influence the population of your threatened or
endangered animal.

 A conclusion summarising the main message of why people need to look after the endangered animal

and also look after our environment.

 Include graphs showing the decline of a population or pictures of the endangered/ threatened species.

 A Public Service Announcement presented as either a flyer or brochure.

Upon submitting your inquiry project, it must be sited in your OWN words. If you must quote an author’s work refer to the reference

guide inside the brackets (author, year) and place this after your quote. All images and words that are not your own must be placed

into your bibliography. Sources must be reliable and creditable (au, gov, org). Below is a list of web pages that may be useful for your

inquiry.

https://www.adelaidezoo.com.au/conservation/endangered/

https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.au/animal-friendly-tourism?id=R2019W86g

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/category/blogs/australian-endangered-species/