‘This place is infested with snakes! I don’t know if they are dangerous, please help me!’

Taking learners aged 9 to 12 on an interactive mission to help someone on an island full of snakes, this OER provides material for a 30–45-minute lesson where students must use a biological key to help them differentiate between dangerous and harmless snakes. Through this resource children can develop their knowledge of and appreciation for biodiversity, where variety in the natural world allows for many species to exist.

Using sweets as an example of biodiversity, this activity provides visual and tangible representations of particular characteristics and students use the key to distinguish the different types. This skill is then transferred to images of snakes, linking in with the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences, Outcomes and Benchmarks.

 

Background:

This resource was created as part of the University of Edinburgh’s primary and early secondary years Widening Participation initiative for Edinburgh City primary school pupils who feed into secondary schools with the lowest progression rate to higher education. We normalise and contextualise higher education via school and campus-based classes. It has been created for use as an Open Educational Resource (OER) by OER Service, the Information Services Group at the University. As an OER, teachers are welcome to make any changes to their resources according to their needs.

 

Objectives and Success Criteria:

• Students are able to correctly identify the snakes using the key
• Students are able to follow a key from a description of a snake
• Students can use information to work out if a snake is venomous
• Students can infer if the island is safe

 

Experiences and Outcomes:

SCN 2-01a: I can identify and classify examples of living things, past and present, to help me appreciate their diversity. I can relate physical and behavioural characteristics to their survival or extinction.

Benchmark: Begins to construct and use simple branched keys which can be used to identify particular plants or animals.

 

Take a look at this resource with your class/child if you’d like to give this exciting and interactive lesson a go!

This resource can be used as a class lesson or small group session, meaning there are duplicate resources depending on how the lesson is taught, and teachers are free to make any changes according to their needs.

View and download the resource on Tes.com

 

Header: A black and yellow snake