Can wildlife adapt to climate change? - Year 10

Activity Introduction

Quick summary: This lesson is designed for a flipped classroom, where students learn new content by watching a video in their own time. This strategy provides the opportunity for students to build their knowledge, attitudes and values by themselves, thereby freeing up class time for hands-on work.

Learning goals:

Students recognise the role of climate change in evolution, and understand how climate change is causing some organisms to evolve.
Students build their thinking and questioning skills.

General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking.

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 10 Science

The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the diversity of living things and is supported by a range of scientific evidence (ACSSU185)

Time needed: 30 mins.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – allow students to explore the topic independently.

Resources required: Internet, laptops and earphones, Student Worksheet.

Key words: Evolution, adaptation, climate change, organisms, wildlife, humans.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher Preparation

Overarching learning goal: Students take responsibility for their own learning by watching a video on the relationships between climate change, adaptation and evolution and completing a thinking routine.

The Flipped Lesson

This lesson provides the opportunity for students to explore/build their current knowledge, attitudes and values about how climate change will influence animal adaptation and evolution. While working independently, students are to view the following video and complete tables on the student worksheet. Teachers will also gain insight from students’ responses which can be used to plan other activities.

The visible thinking tools included on the Student Worksheet can be useful in examining and reflecting on how and why student thinking has changed based on learning specific content information. It also helps to develop their reasoning abilities and to recognise cause and effect relationships.

Can wildlife adapt to climate change? - Erin Eastwoo

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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: How will you adapt to climate change?

BEFORE

Before watching the clip, answer the following questions -

1. In your own words, describe climate change:

2. How do you think climate change might affect biodiversity?

Watch the following clip and answer the questions below -

Can wildlife adapt to climate change? - Erin Eastwood (https://youtu.be/ZCKRjP_DMII)

AFTER

Once you have watched the clip, answer the following questions -

1. Summarise the content of this clip in 25 words or less:

2. While there is evidence of some organisms adapting to climate change through changes to ‘plastic’ or non-inheritable traits, there are limits to how much an organism could change. What are some examples of these limits?

3. How could humans adapt to climate change?

4. While some organisms will be able to adapt to changes in the environment caused by climate change, others won’t. How might this affect biodiversity and is it important? Explain your answer:

5. Write a short

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Activity: Can wildlife adapt to climate change? – Year 10

Activity Introduction