Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Introduction To Life Sciences

This year we are using the free life sciences curriculum from Mr Q. There are other curriculums too that can be purchased - watch for the January sale!

The curriculum features a text book, worksheets, and parents guide (including activities and experiments to do). There is enough to keep you going for a whole year.

This week we have been learning about biotic and abiotic objects, resources and populations. After we had read the chapter in the text book and completed the worksheets the children did a sorting exercise with a range of objects. I presented them with a feely bag and they had to choose and describe an object inside by touch alone. Once it was identified it had to be sorted in the right category - biotic or abiotic. I put in a few tricky items, like a building block made of wood and a fossil, which were once alive so had to be classified as biotic. Here are the results of the sort:


We also visited the Australian Museum and discussed biotic and abiotic objects on display. Today we used magazines (National geographics have lots of good pictures, 5 back issues for $1 at our local Lifeline shop), and the children searched for pictures they liked and cut them out. They then had to decide if the picture showed biotic or abiotic objects. Here are the results:

By R
By L

In addition to the Mr Q curriculum we are also doing nature study once a week along with gardening and cooking.

 Nature study of shells and seed pods by R


Nature study of shell by L

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