A variety of plants and animals of different habitats should be studied by children at each level. Opportunities to visit and explore a range of habitats in the local environment are central to the development of children's ideas about the diversity and life processes of living things. Investigative work based on the animals and plants that are observed and explored in different natural habitats may be undertaken in the classroom. Caring for animals and plants and understanding their needs for growth and development will enable children to observe, measure and record the changes taking place in organisms over an extended period. These schoolbased investigations will supplement and support the work in the outdoor environment but they are not an adequate substitution for the first-hand exploration and discovery by the child.
Identifying habitats in the local environment
Before undertaking outdoor investigations teachers should become aware of the range of habitats in the area and should identify those habitats that can be compared and contrasted. The study of a natural habitat such as a hedgerow, sand dune or woodland may be more accessible for schools in rural areas. However, children both in urban and rural schools will have access to habitats such as a piece of wasteland, a tree, a footpath and its verge, or a wild area in a garden. It is also possible for schools to create habitats, both inside and outside. A school garden can be made using an old sink, barrel or car wheel. The basic requirements of soil, water and rocks can be assembled and appropriate animals and plants introduced.
The habitat selected for study can be quite small. During the early years it is recommended that children study small areas, so that their attention is focused. An area of one or two square metres can be selected and marked out using pegs and string. These habitats or selected areas of interest may be within the school grounds, under a tree in the nearby park or by a hedge.
The extent of the habitats and environments that the child will study and explore will increase as the child grows older. In the junior classes habitats such as a tree, a grassy area or a pond may be introduced. Children can create their own habitat from logs and stones in a quiet area and observe the animals and plants that are attracted there. In the middle classes the habitats studied will be based in areas where children live and play, for example a woodland, a stream or waste ground. In the senior classes children may study a habitat in the locality and compare and contrast this habitat with one in a more distant place: for example, children may study a deciduous forest and compare and contrast it with a coniferous forest. The progressive expansion of the habitats explored reflects the child's developing ability to work in the environment and his/her understanding of a widening range of scientific concepts and methods of working.
Approaches to outdoor exploration and investigation
Preparing for outdoor exploration
Comprehensive guidelines on the planning and organisation of fieldwork are provided in the Teacher Guidelines for Geography. However, there are specific requirements to ensure that successful scientific investigations are undertaken in the outdoor environment.
Knowing the environment
The teacher should be thoroughly familiar with the habitat that will be visited and explored. Teachers should visit different habitats that they plan to investigate with children at different class levels. These preliminary visits will clarify the potential of the environment for scientific investigation and will focus on the teaching strategies to be adopted. Records of habitat surveys should be kept on file in the school, and these will provide a valuable resource for teachers.
The teacher must also have a clear idea of the contribution of the proposed visit to the children's learning and the areas of scientific knowledge and skills that can be developed. Consideration should be given to questions that children may ask from their observations of the environment. These questions will provide starting points for the children's investigations. The teacher may identify some investigations that can best be pursued in the field and those that would be more profitably explored in the classroom.
Working safely in the outdoor environment
Outdoor work should be based in areas that are accessible for children, teachers and helpers and that are safe. Preliminary visits by teachers to the site can be used to identify potential hazards. If there are apparent dangers then a more suitable habitat should be selected for study. Habitat studies involve children in working with plants and animals, and teachers should be aware that many children are allergic to some animals and plants.
Adequate supervision should be given to the children at all times. As most outdoor investigations will involve children working in small groups, it will be necessary for a number of adults to accompany each class. These adults should be aware of the hazards that may be encountered and the procedures to be adopted in the event of emergencies.
Preparing for work outdoors
It is advisable that teachers should help children to prepare for scientific work outdoors. The children should have a clear sense of the purpose of the visit. They may need some factual information about the habitat before their visit: for example, they may use secondary sources to provide some basic information about the development of bogs and peatlands. This information will help them to focus their observations, refine their questions and suggest ways of recording on the site. Preparatory work of this nature can ensure that time spent working outdoors is profitable.
Children may also need to practise using some equipment. The use of pooters, sweep nets and magnispectors can be demonstrated by the teacher and practised by the children in the classroom and school grounds. Children can develop confidence using different methods and procedures, such as taking measurements and reading thermometers, before they begin their outdoor work.
Choosing activities for outdoor work
Work in the outdoor environment can incorporate a range of activities and investigations. The activities selected will depend on the age of the children, their previous experience, the time available and the nature of the site. If a large group or whole class is being taken on an initial visit then one or two activities that focus on a small number of features in the environment will be sufficient. Opportunities for children to observe, ask questions and propose ideas to be tested should also be provided. It may not be possible for the children's ideas to be tested or investigated during an initial visit. Follow-up visits and classroom work can be used to encourage them to explore habitats in a scientific way.
As children develop more experience of working outdoors, a greater range of activities and explorations may be undertaken. Children in middle and senior classes who have developed a range of skills and knowledge of environmental investigations will be encouraged to ask their own questions and to undertake tasks that they have devised for themselves. Activities that encourage group participation and activity are recommended. These activities should enhance classroom work and develop children's social skills and should avoid repeating experiences of earlier years.
The teacher should also decide on the duration of the habitat study, as this will affect the type and nature of activities undertaken by the children. Work on a local stream, hedgerow, farm or seashore may be undertaken on a seasonal basis, and children could repeat activities at regular intervals over a year. Outdoor work that is long-term should be used by the teacher as a springboard for activities in other related areas, such as history and geography.
Collecting living things and conservation
The indiscriminate collection of plants and animals should be discouraged, and children should be aware of the importance of conserving the natural flora and fauna in the environment. Children should be encouraged to make a list and perhaps a count of animals and plants that they find. The observation, recording and sketching of living things during outdoor exploration should largely take the place of collecting. Where regular visits to a habitat can be made to observe progress and change, nothing should be picked or collected.
Animals and plants should only be removed from their environment when an investigation cannot be carried out there. It is recommended that children discuss what they intend to collect before beginning their outdoor work. The teacher should organise it so that each group of children collects only one sample of each plant or a very limited number of samples. The collection of plants and animals should be carried out under the direct supervision of the teacher or another adult. Arrangements should be made for the return of animals to their habitats.
Teachers can encourage children to care for and respect plants and animals and take action to protect the environment. Children could devise a conservation code for themselves before working in the outdoor environment. The code can be agreed as part of the preparatory work and revised after initial explorations outdoors.
Implementing follow-up work
A programme of work based on the observations made by the pupils during their outdoor investigations is essential if the full potential of outdoor work is to be realised. Follow-up work can involve the pupils in
- discussing and comparing the findings of various groups
- analysing and interpreting the information collected
- using secondary sources to identify animals and plants observed in the habitat
- grouping and classifying animals and plants
- undertaking investigations with living things
- organising displays of their drawings and records.
Approaches to investigating habitats
Using a range of investigative techniques
A number of teaching and learning activities may be used to help children develop their ideas about plants and animals that populate different habitats. Children should investigate the conditions needed for animals and plants to exist and explore the preferences shown by plants and animals for particular environments. A range of investigations that focus on living organisms are discussed in this section.
Starting from the children's ideas
The teacher can ask the children to consider the kinds of places where animals and plants live. The children can then identify and record as many different places as possible where they find animals or plants living. They will suggest places such as
The children's ideas may be used as the starting point for the habitat investigation. Books, videos and other secondary sources can extend children's knowledge of the variety of places in which plants and animals can be found. Drawings and annotated sketches can help them to reflect on the different types of habitats where various organisms live.
Comparing habitats
In the middle and senior classes children should begin to compare and contrast the animals and plants found in similar habitats. Such studies may compare
- the plants and animals inhabiting two ponds, in shaded and sunny positions
- the different types of animals found in oak trees in the same wooded area
- the variety of weeds found between cracks in footpaths of urban areas.
EXEMPLAR 11 - Initiating observations in the outdoor environment (all classes)
EXEMPLAR 12 - Observing and recording in the natural environment
EXEMPLAR 13 - Developing observation through questioning (all class levels)
EXEMPLAR 14 - Exploring, observing and recording plants in a habitat
EXEMPLAR 15 - Classifying and identifying living things
EXEMPLAR 16 - Investigating a freshwater pond (middle classes)
Investigations with living things
Children's ideas about living things must be tested scientifically. These tests will be carefully controlled, and evidence will be gathered that will help the children to confirm or reject their initial ideas.
Investigative work with living things imposes ethical obligations on teachers and children. Care should be taken not to cause discomfort or distress to any animal being studied, either in its own habitat or in the classroom. Teachers should supervise closely the tests that children devise. Children may not always be able to predict what the outcomes will be for the creature or the length of time they need to carry out the investigation.
Small animals such as woodlice, snails and earthworms may be kept for short periods in the classroom. This work can help children to develop a sense of responsibility for animals and a sensitivity to and respect for the animal and its needs. Observing and investigating animals in the classroom will provide opportunities for children to develop scientific concepts of diversity, life cycles, feeding and behaviour.
Investigative work with small animals can concentrate on aspects of their behaviour such as
- food and feeding
- movement
- habitat and camouflage behaviour
- life cycles and reproduction.
The investigations outlined in the following pages focus on some aspects of the behaviour of small animals and can be undertaken without causing pain or distress to animals. It is recommended that children work in small groups under close supervision.
Observing behaviour: food and feeding
Children can be helped to discover the food preferences of the animals they are keeping in the classroom or observing outdoors. A food preference test involves offering the animal two or more foods to choose from. The different foods are placed in the container, and the children observe which the animal chooses. Children should be taught to maintain the welfare of the animal and should always include among the foods one that they know the animal will eat, so that it doesn't become hungry. The children should try to make their tests fair by offering the animals the same amount of different foods and making the food equally accessible. Exemplar 18 outlines how a food preference test may be carried out in the classroom with children in first and second classes. Similar tests may be designed for other animals, such as ants, snails and worms.
Observing behaviour
Investigations of animal behaviour can be carried out using choice-chamber tests. These tests enable children to compare animals' responses to different conditions, such as wet and dry, light and dark. The choice-chamber test enables children to find out which factors influence the animal's choice of habitat.
During the test the animal is placed in a small container that is divided into smaller sections. Each chamber has a contrasting environment. These might be cool and warm, rough-surfaced andsmooth-surfaced, or sand and leaves. The type of environments provided will depend on the variables the children have decided to test.
The animal then makes a choice between the environments, and the choice is recorded.
Choice-chamber tests can be carried out with small animals without any risk to their safety. The results of choicechamber tests can be used by children to make the animal's classroom home more closely matched to its needs. If their tests indicate that woodlice favour dark conditions, then provision should be made for dark areas in the classroom vivarium. Exemplar 19 illustrates how a choice-chamber test can be carried out in the classroom and the stages the children use to ensure fair testing and scientific working.
EXEMPLAR 17 - Useful techniques for collecting animals
EXEMPLAR 18 - Food and feeding (first and second classes)
EXEMPLAR 19 - Choice-chamber tests with woodlice (all classes)
Investigating the processes of life in plants
A number of processes are common to all organisms but may be carried out in different ways. In the case of feeding and digestion, green plants produce their own food by photosynthesis. Plants use carbon dioxide, water and the sun's energy to make food and release oxygen as a by-product. Plants take up nutrients that are dissolved in water through their roots. As a result of these activities plants grow.
Plants as well as animals respire, that is, they use oxygen to burn up food. This process provides energy for the cells. Many animals have blood circulating in vessels throughout their bodies. Plants too have vessels in which food and nutrients move.
Plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually. The flower is the organ of sexual reproduction. Growing plants from cuttings is an example of asexual reproduction.
Plants, unlike animals, do not move from place to place, but they do move in response to light and other stimuli. Plants therefore display sensitivity, even though they have no sense organs.
EXEMPLAR 20 - Plant processes (infant classes)
EXEMPLAR 21 - Plant processes (third and fourth classes)