Differentiated worksheet to introduce students to sampling with a quadrat. This can lead on to more detailed sampling or dicussion of habitats and environments, food webs KW: quadrat, sampling, percentage cover, organism, species, environment, habitat, food webs

Set of 32 superhero cards with their genotypes so that your class can predict superhero baby traits. Great way to demonstrate inheritance, alleles, homozygous, heterozygous, punnet squares etc.

Revise key genetics and variation concepts by playing Cranium! This resource provides instructions and resource materials for revising key vocabulary and simple concepts. Vocabulary and concepts include Mutation Phenotypes and genotypes Meiosis Natural, artificial and sexual selections Genes, alleles, chromosomes

Questioning is a critical life and learning skill. Yet many students are reluctant to formulate their own questions. In this fun game students work in groups of 2 to 4 to generate questions. Students can role model and help peers to formulate questions in the pseudo-safety of a game context. This game works well with students of all ages who are able to read and write. It has been enjoyed by students in both a primary and secondary context with great success. It is appropriate for ALL SUBJECT AREAS, social science, science, English, etc. How to use this game Determining what areas of a topic students are interested in. Generating questions for student inquiries, projects or research. Generating questions to use for revising a topic before a test or exam. Generating questions for extending deeper in to a topic that students have studied. Developing writing prompts for students.

Lion king foodweb activity. Kids love when you play them some of the movie first (from you tube). Also requires students to use key words omnivore, herbivore, producer, consumer, etc.

Easy classification starter that requires no explanation. Especially good for very low literacty classes. Allows some assessment of prior knowledge. KW. Classification Compare Adaptation Evolution

Differentiated worksheet to help students learn the difference between environments and habitats. KW: habitat environment organism

Do your students need help to understand the scientific method? How can we help them understand what makes for good scientific evidence and what doesn’t? How can we help student understand scientific validity? How might we help our students to think more like scientists? This game is here to help! Students get points for selecting the most valid method for a provided hypothesis. Each hypothesis is based on real scientific study or a published scientific journal article. Articles were found based on biology and ecology topics that a group of high school students identified as areas they are interested in. Student reviews “It helped me see what a good method looks like and the type of words that are used.” “It helps to learn the appropriate language to use in these sorts of scientific works and how to measure how valid/reliable a method is.” Why play this game? It’s fun! Develop knowledge of scientific techniques. Promote discussion between students about scientific ideas including: * Discuss ethical issue in science * Discuss reliability and validity Develop scientific literacy. Introduce students to current scientific work. Provide different levels of challenge with the same resource. Improve scientific investigation skills.

This resources applies learning about acids and bases in a fun way, while building critical thinking skills. The task supports students to: Revise understandings about acids and bases. Record, organise and draw conclusions from data. Features of this task Differentiated Rubrics provided Practical is easily resourced Supports development of critical thinking Cognitive progression to ensure all students are challenged Includes practical instructions Caters for a range of curiculum levels Students are provided with a range of ‘Martian’ soil samples. They test the samples and analyse the results to draw conclusions about whether alien life would be possible given the soil conditions. This task could be used and adapted for a range of contexts including: Microbiology eg. extremophiles Biological adaptations Acids and bases Earth and space science

This game based on snakes and ladders includes a range of revision questions to help students discuss key definitions and concepts about genetic inheritance, genetic change and variation. Resource works best for students who are studying specialist biology. Concepts students will revise: Genes, chromosomes and basic inheritance Evolution through natural selection and sources of variation Population bottlenecks and the founder effect What you will need: Each student will need a counter (alternatively each student can use a coloured bead, self sculpted paper clip, etc.) Each group of students will need a die (alternatively use an app or website) Print a copy of the sheet for each group of students. How to use: Game can be played in groups of two to four students. Students can play this game open or closed book depending on their familiarity with the content. Students should check each other’s responses against their notes. An answer sheet is included. Questions included: What is the impact of linked genes on offspring variation? What is the difference between a genotype and a phenotype? How does migration affect a gene pool? How does genetic drift affect a gene pool? How does multiple allele systems work? What factors can change the allele frequency in a population? How does the founder effect genetic drift?? How does natural selection work? How does speciation occur? Explain how the ABO blood types are inherited? What is the difference between codominance and incomplete dominance? What does meiosis affect link genes? How does one determine if two genes are linked? How is genetic variation affected by the bottleneck effect? How is genetic variation affected by the founder effect? How are mutations inherited? Mutation and meiosis both introduce variation. How are the different? What is a pedigree diagram? Two parents with genotype GgHh were crossed. Are these genes linked if a 9:3:3:1 ratio resulted? How does meiosis introduce variation between offspring? What is the difference between a sister chromatid and a homologous chromosome? What is a sister chromatid? How is biological sex determined for humans? Explain how lethal alleles are maintained in a population? Why might the phenotype ratio in a dihybrid cross not result in the expected phenotype ratio? What is the difference between a haploid and a diploid cell? How does low genetic diversity affect endangered species’ ability to recover? Why might high genetic diversity in humans have been helpful during the COVID pandemic? Kauri lost 90% of its diversity…How does this affect their recovery from Kauri dieback? What concepts do you most need to revise? Why is reduced variation a problem for endangered species?

Access the resource grid: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1z9ZHreEcrd7ivQeyqUDRRzC37OnB-0wWROcS3vAlve0/edit?usp=sharing Explore and make sense of habits, environment and niche with the help of magical creatures expert Newt Scamander. The resource provides: A range of activities at different levels of difficulty Student choice A range of learning modes A fun context A self assessment rubric

This is a template for students and teachers to work through together to scaffold a student inquiry. Students are asked to Generate questions Research questions Summarise research The resource works well if students have first generated a range of questions about a topic of their choice. The question game can really help with this.

Differentiated starer activity for low literacy classes.