Swallow Hill Community College
Faculty of Science – Key Stage 3 Scheme of Work
Year 7
Module Title
Island Adventures
Lesson
3
POS R & C
POS HSW
2.3
1.2a, 1.2b, 1.2d1
Lesson Outcomes
Lesson Objectives
Pupils will have
Identified control variables
Determined what environment woodlice prefer
To be able to decide which variables to control,
change and measure
To design an investigation so that appropriate
measurements are taken
To be able to describe how woodlice respond to
external stimuli
APP – assessment pieces to be collected from this lesson
Safety implication
Pupils to wash their hands with soap after handling the woodlice.
Suggested Lesson Outline
Starter
Give pupils some descriptions of investigations. For each one ask the pupils what is being measured
and what is being changed.
Lower ability could be given a writing frame to help them, e.g. In this investigation I am
changing……………. and I am measuring……………….
This may be a good opportunity to introduce the words Independent and Dependent Variable.
Phase 1
Introduce the idea of behavioural responses to internal and external stimuli.
Give them examples of behaviour that the ecologists have witnessed and ask them to identify what
the stimuli is.
E.g. Bird calling, butterflies performing a courtship dance, chimps using tools. Video clips would be
useful for this.
The purpose is for the pupils to recognise the stimuli. In a later lesson they will be introduced to
innate and learned behaviour.
Phase 2
Introduce the investigation as the ecologists collected these woodlice but forgot to write which area
they were from. You are to find out what conditions the woodlice prefer and then for a conclusion as
to where they are from.
Pupils to plan the investigation into which physical condition the woodlice prefer.
The investigation planning sheets are useful for this.
Pupils to concentrate on the variables in this lesson.
Phase 3
Pupils to carry out the investigation. This would be a good opportunity to assess their table drawing
skills.
Plenary
From their data pupils to decide what conditions the woodlice prefer. From this describe what their
habitat would be like and make suggestions as to which area did the ecologists collect the woodlice
from.
Differentiation (Lower and Higher)
Writing frames for lower ability and the investigations chosen for the starter to be
simpler.
Apparatus requirements
Choice chambers, woodlice, stop clocks, soap, paper towels, black paper, calcium chloride, cellotape
Literacy/Numeracy content:
Keywords:
Timing of the woodlice in each chamber,
rounding up of numbers into whole seconds for
higher ability.
Reading the times correctly on the stop clock
for lower ability.
Woodlice, behaviour, stimuli,
ICT Content:
Suggested rich questions
N/A
Misconceptions