Level 2

Credits 3

Demonstrate understanding of adaptation of plants or animals to their way of life

Introduction

This assessment activity requires you to work individually to develop a portfolio of information which you can use to produce a written report on the adaptations relating to nutrition and internal transport in Rowi (Brown Kiwi) and Korora (Little Blue Penguin).

The portfolio should also include information on how these adaptations allow these birds to carry out their way of life or occupy the ecological niches that they do.

This is a resource-based assessment: you are able to access resources gathered in your programme of learning as you write your report.

You will have a time period of 2 weeks out of class (in/out of lockdown) to collect information, develop a portfolio, and present your report.

You report must be written up independently.

Your portfolio will record all the information you collect on gas exchange and transport such as drawings from observations / examinations / dissections, results from investigations, notes from DVDs, class discussions, processed information from internet sites and textbooks, annotated diagrams, and formal notes made in class.

You will use this information to develop your report.

You will be assessed on the extent to which your report shows your comprehensive understanding of how birds have adapted to their way of life in relation to the life processes of nutrition and internal transport.

An organism’s way of life is determined by how it relates to other organisms in its surrounding environment (e.g. competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism), the reproductive strategies it employs to ensure survival of the species and how it adapts to its physical habitat.

Their adaptations involve the range of ways in which the organism has developed strategies to carry out their life processes in order to survive and reproduce.

An adaptation refers to a feature and its function that provides an advantage for the organism in its specific habitat and ecological niche. It may include structural, behavioral, or physiological features of the organism.

Task

Complete a written report on the adaptations relating to nutrition and internal transport in two birds (Rowi and Korora) to show how or why these adaptations allow each to survive in its habitat.

Use your portfolio of collected, relevant biological information to provide supporting evidence. Your written report should:

• Name the two birds you have studied and provide a brief description of their ecological niches e.g. physical habitat, relationships with other organisms.

• Describe the structural, behavioral and/or physiological adaptations that enable each bird to carry out nutrition and internal transport.

• Explain how or why these adaptations enable each bird to successfully carry out nutrition and internal transport in order to survive in its habitat. You should provide examples to support your explanations.

• Discuss how these adaptations for nutrition and internal transport are connected in each bird. Your discussion should include examples linking several biological ideas to show how the adaptations:

  • enhance the effectiveness of both life processes in each bird.

  • have limitations and advantages of named features or processes within each bird.

You may use annotated diagrams to support your answer.

Hand your portfolio to your teacher along with your completed report.