Lesson 11 and 12: Why is the cane toad so successful? Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes Suggested learning sequence Introduced species cane toad. Teachers may need to Introduction – demonstrate how to do this. How Review learning so far in this unit by detailed the chart is will depend on the looking at the class displays and needs of the class (see Resource 6: retrieval charts of animal adaptations. Cause-and-effect charts for examples). Explain to students that animals often Ask students to about the have to change their behaviour when effects of the introduction of their environment changes. One way cane toads or other animals on their environment may change is when habitats, native animals, the economy, a new type of animal moves in. or even tourism. Get students to add their responses to the chart. A classic Australian example of this is the introduction of the cane toad. Ask With their chart, students should also students if they know anything about include some ideas about what might the cane toad, when it was introduced be done to help get rid of harmful, or why. introduced species. You may need to give some examples e.g. a disease was Read Resource 5 Cane Toads, and – created to eradicate rabbits, events are ask students to identify structural and held to humanely kill as many toads behavioural adaptations of cane toads and tilapias in one day as possible to that contribute to their survival success reduce their number and also to raise in a variety of environments. awareness. Can students identify any adaptations If time allows, you could then research that may have happened to native more about introduced species and animals because of the introduction of how native animals have had to adapt the cane toad? Are there native animals to them. This information could be used that are unable to adapt and their to write reports for newsletters, class population numbers decreasing books or community awareness because of the cane toads? pamphlets and/or posters. Ask students if they know of Add new words to the word wall (See examples of introduced species Resource 1 Word bank for examples – impacting on native animals. Provide of vocabulary). more examples if necessary e.g. tilapia, northern pacific sea star, foxes, rabbits Students add their learning and or camels. reflections to their science journal (See Resource 2 Student reflections for – Activity Cause-and-effect charts – examples of sentence starters you can use to guide student reflections). Ask students to create a chart on the introduction of the
Lesson 11 and 12: Why is the cane toad so successful? Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes Suggested learning sequence Introduction – Introduced species Review learning so far in this unit by looking at the class displays and retrieval charts of animal adaptations. Explain to students that animals often have to change their behaviour when their environment changes. One way their environment may change is when a new type of animal moves in. A classic Australian example of this is the introduction of the cane toad. Ask students if they know anything about the cane toad, when it was introduced or why. Read Resource 5 – Cane Toads, and ask students to identify structural and behavioural adaptations of cane toads that contribute to their survival success in a variety of environments. Can students identify any adaptations that may have happened to native animals because of the introduction of the cane toad? Are there native animals that are unable to adapt and their population numbers decreasing because of the cane toads? Ask students if they know of examples of introduced species impacting on native animals. Provide more examples if necessary e.g. tilapia, northern pacific sea star, foxes, rabbits or camels. Activity – Cause-and-effect charts Ask students to create a chart on the introduction of the cane toad. Teachers may need to demonstrate how to do this. How detailed the chart is will depend on the needs of the class (see Resource 6: Cause-and-effect charts for examples). Ask students to about the effects of the introduction of cane toads or other animals on habitats, native animals, the economy, or even tourism. Get students to add their responses to the chart. With their chart, students should also include some ideas about what might be done to help get rid of harmful, introduced species. You may need to give some examples e.g. a disease was created to eradicate rabbits, events are held to humanely kill as many toads and tilapias in one day as possible to reduce their number and also to raise awareness. If time allows, you could then research more about introduced species and how native animals have had to adapt to them. This information could be used to write reports for newsletters, class books or community awareness pamphlets and/or posters. Add new words to the word wall (See Resource 1 – Word bank for examples of vocabulary). Students add their learning and reflections to their science journal (See Resource 2 – Student reflections for examples of sentence starters you can use to guide student reflections).
Reef-Guardians-2016-Year-5-Animal-adaptations.docx