Students should learn:
- that organisms need a supply of materials from their surroundings and from other living organisms in order to survive and reproduce
- that organisms are adapted to the conditions in which they live
- how microorganisms have a wide range of adaptations enabling them to live in a wide range of conditions.
- describe the materials that living organisms need in order to survive and reproduce
- explain that plants and animals are adapted to survive in their particular habitat
- explain that the adaptations of microorganisms enable them to survive in a wide range of conditions.
- explain how some microorganisms are able to survive in extreme conditions.
Organisms, including microorganisms have features (adaptations) that enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live. [B1.4.1 d)]
Some organisms live in environments that are very extreme. Extremophiles may be tolerant to high levels of salt, high temperatures or high pressures. [B1.4.1 e)]
Animals and plants may be adapted to cope with specific features of their environment, e.g. thorns, poisons and warning colours to deter predators. [B1.4.1 g)] / Chapter map: Adaptation for survival
Teacher notes: Adaptation for survival
Support: Making a living
Lesson structure / Support, Extend and Practical notes
Starters
Spaceship supplies – Suppose you were to take yourself, some animals, some plants and some microorganisms to start a colony on another planet. In order to keep them alive during the journey, what would you need to provide for the plants, the animals, and the microorganisms? Write down your own ideas, then share them with others. (5 minutes)
Can you tell where I live from what I look like? – Bring in some live or stuffed animals or alternatively project some good pictures on to a smart board. Then discuss their adaptations, drawing some conclusions about the conditions in the habitats in which they might be found. The points to get across are that the adaptations are physical features that you can touch or see, but that there are also behavioural adaptations, such as lizards basking in the sun, that are important. Students can be supported by giving them a list of adaptations to choose from. Students can be extended by asking them to explain how these adaptations may have arisen. (10 minutes)
Main
- Ask the students the question: ‘What makes an animal an animal and a plant a plant?’ Draw out the differences in nutrition. You may well have to point out that some animals don’t move much e.g. sea anemones and that plants do move, although generally slowly. Speeded up camera footage of plants moving would be useful here and you could remind students of the growth movements involved in phototropism.
- Use a PowerPoint slide show or short explanation to review the needs of animals and plants. Get the students to summarise their responses in a table.
- Draw out what microorganisms are. Explain the very large number of different types and the vast variety of environments that they survive in. Remind students about pathogens as well as useful microorganisms. One way could be to have a circus of cards around the room each with a microorganism type, its picture and nutritional details.
- Show some animals and plants with extreme adaptations. Examples could include animals and plants that live in situations such as very low temperatures, very high salt concentrations, etc. Discuss the adaptations shown.
Life on another planet – Discuss with students how, once your spaceship had landed on another planet, the animals, plants and microorganisms might have to adapt to live there. Would it be possible? Might you decide to take some extremophiles with you? (5 minutes)
What’s in a name? – Following a discussion or presentation on animals, plants and microorganisms living in extreme conditions, get students to give you their ideas on the meaning of the following terms: thermophile, xerophile, osmophile, halophile, acidophile. You can support students by providing a list from which they can choose and by showing pictures of examples that might give them clues. Students can be extended by adding extra terms: alkalophile, thermoacidophile etc. These students can be asked to give the meaning of the term, suggest a habitat and an example for each one. It could be helpful to tell students that the suffix ‘-phile’ comes from the Greek word for ‘love’. (10 minutes) / Support
- Give the students a prepared table of adaptations and animals – they are to match one to another.
- Have a series of cards with the requirements for life, such as food, water, oxygen etc. and get the students to sort out what plants, animals and microorganisms need.
- Give students the term ‘psychrophile’ and ask them to find out what it means and give examples. The Natural History Museum website is a good starting point.
- Microbes on Mars? Students could investigate the possibility that some microbes could survive in the harsh weather conditions found on Mars. Try the Astrobiology magazine web site.
Course / Subject / Topic / Pages
Science A / Biology / B1 4.1 Adapt and survive / Pages 76-77
Learning objectives / Learning outcomes / Specification link-up / Kerboodle
Students should learn:
- that animals are adapted for survival in their particular habitat
- that there is a relationship between body size and surface area : volume ratio
- that hair and body fat can provide insulation.
- define the term ‘adaptation’
- describe how animals are adapted to survive in cold climates
- describe how animals are adapted to life in a dry climate.
- explain in detail how organisms are adapted to the conditions in which they live, when provided with appropriate information.
Controlled Assessment: SA4.1 Planning an investigation [SA4.1.1 a) b) c) d)], [SA4.1.2 a) b) c)]; SA4.3 Collect primary and secondary data [SA4.3.3 a) b)]; SA4.4 Select and process primary and secondary data [SA4.4.2 b)] and SA4.5 Analyse and interpret primary and secondary data [SA4.5.3 a)], [SA4.5.4 a)]. / Data handling skills: Insulation
How science works: Does changing surface area to volume ratio affect water loss by evaporation?
Bump up your grade: Survival rivals
Lesson structure / Support, Extend and Practical notes
Starters
Temperature regulation! – Get a student to dress up in a fur hat, scarf, thick coat and gloves (or dress up yourself). Contrast with pictures of Newcastle United football supporters taking their shirts off in the snow at matches. Discuss effects on temperature regulation. (5 minutes)
Life in the Freezer – Search the web for a video of arctic animals (see the Discovery Channel at or project a series of images of arctic animals and get students to say what features the animals have which are adaptations to their environment. Students could be supported by being given a list of adaptations and matching the adaptation to the animal. Students could be extended by asking them to consider behavioural adaptations as well as physical ones. (10 minutes)
Main
- Surface area: volume ratio demonstrations with chocolate and building blocks. Show students a small chocolate bar. Ask if they think you could get it all in your mouth in one piece, without breaking it or biting it. Ask them to imagine if you did that, where would the saliva be able to touch? Draw out that is would be just the outside surface. Cut the bar into smaller and smaller bits, getting the students to see that the smaller the bits, the larger the surface area to volume ratio is. Make sure students do not eat in the laboratory.
- A further practical session could be used to introduce the concept of surface area: volume ratios having an effect on heat loss (see ‘Practical support’ for full details). How Science Works concepts can also be introduced here.
- Set up a demonstration to show that the thickness of an insulating coat will affect the temperature loss (see ‘Practical support’). This investigation is also useful for teaching and assessing investigative aspects of ‘How Science Works’, as it involves taking measurements, plotting graphs and drawing conclusions.
- Discuss the similarities between the adaptations in desert animals.
Mix and match adaptations and functions – Put a list of adaptations on the board alongside a list of functions. Ask students to come and link an adaptation to a function. (5 minutes)
Modify or die – Imagine that the climate has changed in the UK and is now very cold and icy for most of the year. Describe and/or draw how some of our familiar animals would eventually have to evolve or die. Do the same supposing that the UK became very hot and dry. Differentiation by outcome: some students will need to be supported by prompting and produce limited suggestions, whilst students can be extended by being encouraged to produce more detailed ones. (10 minutes) / Support
Have a floor dominoes session where students match animals and their adaptations. Include animals of all types and from different habitats. Played with cards in the form of dominoes, but make the cards large so that the game can be played on the floor.
Extend
Ask students to design an experiment to investigate whether people who regularly swim in the sea have a different surface area to volume ratio than those who only swim in heated pools.
Practical support
Surface area: volume ratios and energy loss
Equipment and materials required
Cups, saucers, digital thermometers, hot water (about 60°C); a 1 litre beaker and ten 100 ml beakers; small conical flasks of different sizes.
Details
There are several ways of doing this. The simplest way is to give students cups and saucers and digital thermometers. Pour the same volume of hot (about 60°C) water into each cup and measure the temperature drop. Alternatively, pour 1 litre of hot water into a litre beaker and divide another litre of water equally between ten 100 ml beakers. Monitor the temperature. Data loggers can be used here. It is also possible to use different sizes of flasks, allowing students to carry out their own temperature readings and plot their own graphs. Predictions can be made, readings carried out and repeated, and conclusions drawn.
Safety: Care is needed with the handling of hot water.
The effect of insulation on energy loss
Equipment and materials required
For each group; two similar sized flasks, thermometers, hot water, insulation.
Details
Two conical flasks of the same volume can be filled with hot water. One flask is left uncovered and the other surrounded by an insulating layer of cotton wool, or other material. The temperature drop can be recorded as before. This experiment could be done as a demonstration or by groups of students. It could be done at the same time as the previous experiment.
Safety: Care is needed with the handling of hot water.
Course / Subject / Topic / Pages
Science A / Biology / B1 4.2 Adaptation in animals / Pages 78-79
Course / Subject / Topic / Pages
Science A / Biology / B1 4.3 Adaptation in plants / Pages 80-81
Learning objectives / Learning outcomes / Specification link-up / Kerboodle
Students should learn:
- how some plants are adapted to live in dry conditions
- that changes in the surface area of plants affect the rate at which water is lost
- how plants living in dry conditions may store water in their tissues.
- describe the adaptations shown by plants that live in dry environments
- explain how these adaptations reduce the quantity of water lost by the plant.
- explain in detail the importance of water-storage tissues in desert plants.
Controlled Assessment: SA4.1 Planning an investigation [SA4.1.1 a) b) c)], [SA4.1.2 a)]; SA3.4.3 Collect primary and secondary data [SA4.3.3 a) b)]; A4.4 Select and process primary and secondary data [SA4.4.1 a) b)], [SA4.4.2 a) b)].
Lesson structure / Support, Extend and Practical notes
Starters
Saving water and storing water – Show the students a cactus plant and a potted geranium or similar plant. Ask the students which one could survive the longest in drought conditions and why? Draw out reduction in leaf surface area, possibility of storing water etc. Cut a slice of the cactus and show the water-storing tissue or project a slide of a section of the tissue. (5 minutes)
Losing water – Choose two identical soft-leaved plants (tomato plants or whatever is available) and two similar cactus plants. Leave one of each to dry out, so that the soft-leaved plant is wilted, but water the other two thoroughly. Present these to the students explaining how they have been treated. Students can be supported by asking what the differences are and getting them to describe what they see. Students can be extended by asking: ‘Why are the differences not as great between the two cactus plants as they are between the two soft-leaved plants?’ These students could be encouraged to speculate constructively as to the reasons and suggest further investigations to compare the two [e.g. weighing to calculate mass loss]. (10 minutes)
Main
- Search the web to show pictures of adaptations of plants to arid conditions. Share with students the fact that the words ‘stomach’ and ‘stoma’ have the same origin from the Greek word for mouth. Show a picture of a stoma looking like a mouth. It would be useful to have a number of succulents and cactus plants available for students to be able to feel the texture and examine the structures in detail. Ask students to write a report on the adaptations.
- Set up a practical investigation into how variation in leaf size affects transpiration (see ‘Practical support’). If preferred, this exercise can be set up as a demonstration where groups of students are given a ‘leaf’ of a different size, the measurements taken and then collected together and discussed. Many ‘How Science Works’ concepts, such as collecting and processing data and drawing conclusions, are introduced here.
- If you have a potometer (or a barometric pressure sensor) you can connect it to a leafy shoot. The rate of water uptake (equivalent to the rate of water loss) can be measured for the intact shoot. When several readings have been taken and a mean rate calculated, several leaves can be removed and the readings repeated. This can be done again removing more leaves. The effect will depend on the type of shoot chosen – one with soft leaves is better than laurel or rhododendron. Other conditions can be simulated using hair dryers and/or plastic bags.
- The surface area of the leaves can be measured as they are removed, by drawing around them on squared paper, cutting round the outlines and weighing them. If you know the mass of a known area of the squared paper, then it is possible to calculate the area of each leaf. (Dividing the mass of the leaf by the mass of 1 cm2will give the area of the leaf.)
Where do I come from? – Show a series of pictures of plants and ask students where they think the plants come from. Students can be supported by having a list of the different environments for them to select an appropriate one. Students can be extended by asking them to write down the name of an environment for each one. Compare answers and get them to suggest reasons for their choice of environment. (5 minutes)
Predictions
Ask students to make thumbnail sketches predicting what graphs would look like for the following:
- cuticle thickness vs. habitat (rainforest/dry desert etc)
- surface area vs. average humidity
- yearly rainfall vs. water storage capacity.
Ask students to measure the leaf areas of two contrasting plants by wax rubbing over large squared graph paper. Ask them to predict from this which plant will need more water.
Extend
- Ask students to try to work out a method for estimating the total leaf surface area on a tree.
- Ask students to consider how plants, such as cacti, are able to make enough food by photosynthesis if their leaves are reduced to spines?
- Look at flat-bladed cacti such as prickly pear (Platyopuntia). Shine a light on it and move the light around to model the apparent movement of the Sun during the day. Which orientation would be best for the cactus? Would the orientation change in different hemispheres?
Investigation into how variation in leaf size affects transpiration
Equipment and materials required
Blotting paper, cotton string, drinking straws, boiling tube (or small measuring cylinder).