Vertebrate Poster
| Grade | Work Samples |
|---|---|
| End of Stage 4 (end of Year 8) | |
| Grade A | Reese |
| Grade B | Riley |
| Grade C | Ricky Chris Frances Terry |
| Grade D | Lee Shannon Kendall Morgan Casey |
| Grade E | Kim Lindsay |
Description of activity
Students gather and summarise information about a named vertebrate using a range of sources. They prepare a descriptive report on the observable features of the named vertebrate using the provided report scaffold. The information is presented using the agreed poster format and the sources of information are acknowledged.
Context
In the unit Living Things students are introduced to Biology as a branch of science. The unit builds on students’ knowledge, understanding and skills from Stage 3 in investigating, designing, making and using technology. It uses examples to enable students to gain an understanding of how historical developments in science and technology have changed ideas about cell structure, microscopic and macroscopic organisms and classification. Students are also introduced through their first-hand experiences to the importance in scientific investigations of making accurate and objective observations.
As a component of a unit of work on the classification of living things students learn and practise research skills through gathering and processing information from a range of secondary sources on a selected vertebrate. Using a provided scaffold they summarise gathered text to construct a descriptive report that includes the observable features of their animal. Students present their collated and summarised descriptive text in a poster. The poster elements have been identified and agreed to by the students based on their observations and discussion around the features of a range of those available commercially.
Areas for Assessment
Outcomes
A student:
4.8 describes features of living things
4.16 accesses information from identified secondary sources
4.17 evaluates the relevance of data and information
4.18 with guidance, presents information to an audience to achieve a particular purpose
Criteria for assessing learning
(These criteria would normally be communicated to students with the activity.)
Students will be assessed on their ability to:
- describe accurately the observable features of a selected vertebrate
- locate relevant information and graphics from a range of secondary sources
- extract and summarise relevant information from secondary sources using the provided scaffold
- appropriately acknowledge sources of information
- apply the student-agreed elements for a poster format to their presentation.