Week 5 term one

This week we have the rocky shore field trip in which we go to the marine reserve at Island Bay to "Investigate an interrelationship or pattern in an ecological population or community". This internally assessed achievement standard is worth three credits.

In preparation for the field trip you should be familiar with the following:

• Abiotic and biotic factors
• Patterns of zonation
• The idea of tolerance and adaptive features
• How to construct a Kite diagram
• Tides
• Survey strategies
• Species we are likely to encounter on the trip

Ask your teacher on Monday if you have any questions.

Week 2

So far this week we have been looking at some of the key terms in ecology;

• Habitat
• Adaptation
• Structural, behavioural and physiological adaptations
• Ecosystem
• Biotic factors
• Abiotic factors

In our lesson on Wednesday afternoon we looked at the little creatures that live in fresh water ponds while thinking about their adaptations.

And of course there is the homework which was to:

Choose an organism and describe its habitat and some of its adaptations listing at least one structural, behavioural and physiological adaptation.

Week One

Homework task

"Find the Scientific classification of the mosquito"

One easy way to remember the order of the groupings in a classification is the mnemonic;

King Phillip Could Only Find Green Spots

Which represents of course:

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.