Science / Year 7 / Science Understanding / Biological sciences

Curriculum content descriptions

Classification helps organise the diverse group of organisms (ACSSU111)

Elaborations
  • considering the reasons for classifying such as identification and communication
  • grouping a variety of organisms on the basis of similarities and differences in particular features
  • considering how biological classifications have changed over time
  • classifying using hierarchical systems such as kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
  • using scientific conventions for naming species
  • using provided keys to identify organisms surveyed in a local habitat
ScOT terms

Classification

Video

Testing the 5-second rule

When it comes to dropping food, have you heard of the 5-second rule? Or the 3-second rule? Watch this video to learn what really happens when you drop food. In order to cause disease, what must bacteria do? What circumstances allow bacteria and viruses to contaminate food more successfully?

Video

What are microbes?

What are microbes? What are the four major groups that most microbes belong to? Listen as Dr Taghrid Istivan explains where microbes are found. What is the name of the group of microbes she describes as beneficial to our health? Can you explain what happens when people get food poisoning?

Interactive

Plant scan

Show an alien how much you know about plant life on Earth. Answer a quiz on plant structure and function. Identify labels for plant parts. Match each plant part with its function. This learning object is the last in a series of two objects.

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Kooaaa! It's a kookaburra

This ABC In Depth feature article describes how kookaburra chicks fight for survival in the family nest in springtime.

Interactive

Sites2See: Databases for science

A page with downloadable examples, exemplars and advice to help integrate database use in teaching and learning for science. Includes suggestions and reasons for using databases in science, practise activities and information on research and benefits, plus links to a range of related resources.

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Treetop kangaroos

This ABC In Depth feature article includes everything you wanted or needed to know about tree kangaroos. This article describes their reproduction, classification, adaptations and issues relating to their conservation.

Interactive

Sites2See: Insects and Spiders

This page links to a range of materials from the Australian Museums' Bugwise program, with additional materials and activities, including a resource about invertebrates in freshwater.

Video

Party locusts

This 8 minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent example of animal behaviour of locusts as a successful adaptation and how understanding the behaviour can potentially help reduce the damage they cause.

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Ant safari

This ABC In Depth feature article includes some good advice for exploring local ant populations as well as an excellent information report on Australian ants: the different types and their roles.

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Ibis Invasion

This ABC In Depth feature article describes research on Australian white ibis - or 'tip turkeys' as many call them. They are regarded as a nuisance in cities, especially in the spring breeding season. But scientists fear they may become extinct as more pressure is put on the wetlands that are their native and adopted environments. ...

Video

Ladybirds

This program encourages people to observe and identify ladybirds in their own backyard. There is the potential to discover a new species or identify an introduced and harmful member of this group of insects.

Interactive

Science Talk 2007: Melanie Bishop

An interview and laboratory tour with Dr Melanie Bishop, a benthic marine ecologist at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Melanie talks to students from Epping Boys High School about her work studying benthic marine ecosystems and the animals that live there. Melanie shares insights into a career in marine biology.

Video

Dugongs

This 6 minute video segment from Catalyst explains how the dugong, a vulnerable to endangered species is protected and that very little is known about it. Biologists are capturing animals to get baseline information about their blood and tissues in an effort to find out more about them and to secure their future. They are ...

Video

Royal Botanic Gardens

This seven and a half minute video segment from Catalyst emphasises the importance of collections in science. The Royal Botanic Gardens is the oldest scientific research organisation in Australia. The history of the gardens is outlined up to its current status as the home to almost 9,000 different species of plants. Paul ...

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Above the snowline

This ABC In Depth feature article gives a range of examples of adaptations and responses of Australian alpine ecosystems, plants and animals to cold conditions.

Interactive

Science Talk 2007: Tim Entwistle

An interview and tour of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney and its herbarium with Dr Tim Entwistle, a plant scientist and the NSW Government Botanist. Tim talks to a pre-service teacher from Macquarie University about his love of plants, in particular freshwater algae. In the herbarium we find out why it is so important ...

Interactive

Science talk 2007: Paul Willis

A master class with Dr Paul Willis, a science journalist and palaeontologist specialising in fossil crocodiles. Paul talks to a Year 2 group about dinosaurs, their size and how you can find evidence about them. Students ask Paul some very interesting questions! Then, a biology student from Richmond High School talks to ...

Video

Seahorses

This six and a half minute video segment from Catalyst shows one of the most beautiful and bizarre creatures under the sea, the seahorse. Their highly unusual reproduction has not been sufficient to overcome the impacts of habitat destruction and human predation.

Downloadable

DT Challenge - 5/6 Blockly - Biology

Learn about the differences between animals, and how Biologists use programming to help them do science! We'll learn about the features of animals, structural and behavioural adaptation, and how to use these properties in order to identify them. So hop in and learn some science! This course is based on the Year 5 science ...

Online

Catchment management: what’s in a drop?

Water is a precious resource, yet water is also wasted every day. This activity investigates water consumption and how you can reduce the amount of water wasted. OUTCOMES of this learning activity are for students to: understand the urban water cycle; learn different ways to reduce water usage; discover how much water is ...