upper ks2...spend pouring rain water over the eggs that my mother had laid in ... (which breaks the...
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Follow-Up ActivitiesUpper KS2
Science and maths: Plan an okapi enclosure, and work out the costArt: Using art to persuade: Banksy and KiddArt: Draw the life cycle of an amphibian in a single pictureLiteracy: Write a short story – what if humans had tadpoles?Persuasive Writing: Letter to a PoacherResearch: Find out about the weird brooding strategies of amphibians
Learning IntentionWe are designing an enclosure for a zoo animal, using what we have learned about its life cycle.
IntroductionOne of our keepers, Rob, would love to look after okapi here at Paignton Zoo. We’ve chosen an area where we can keep the okapi – but they will need a brand new house and outdoor area. We are going to help Rob plan a new enclosure for 2 female and 1 male okapi.
Your Task• Produce a poster to show your group’s design for a new okapi enclosure
• You’ll need to give people an idea of what the enclosure will look like, and how it will suit the visitors and the okapi
• Use the plan provided to sketch out where you would put each fence and the viewing points
• Show your classmates the finished poster, and explain the design you have chosen
How much would it cost? You can calculate a rough cost for your new enclosure using these figures provided by Adi, who organises our building work:
• A 2 metre high fence made of ‘chainlink’ costs £38 per metre length
• A 1.2 metre wide gate made of metal and chainlink costs £450
• A wooden building would cost £200 per square metreThe land available is approx. 130 metres long, and 30 metres wide narrowing to 20 metres.
Science and maths
Plan a new enclosure
Photo: the area of the zoo we could develop for okapi, currently split into two paddocks and two yards,with an old brick animal house.
Animal House
Paddock
Paddock
Yard
Yard
Map of Area Surrounding Proposed Okapi Exhibit
Tips • Okapi are shy, solitary rainforest dwellers. This means that they need to be housed separately from each
other, in a quiet area of the zoo, away from loud noises and busy roads
• We could add plants to their enclosure to help them feel more relaxed, and to show them in a more realistic setting
• At other zoos, okapi spend a lot of their time indoors – particularly in cold weather. We need to plan a large, practical indoor area where our visitors can see okapi but thekeepers can care for them safely and practically
• The cheapest way to house the okapi would be a shed in a field, but making the enclosure more attractive and adding theming will help our visitors understand what okapi look like in the wild. Planting and barriers will help the okapi feel safe and relaxed, and may help them breed
• The keepers will need gates and passages to move okapi between enclosures, and a safe way to get in to clean and maintain without the okapi escaping
Can We Use Art to Persuade?
Art
We have recently unveiled a display by our artist, Jackie Kidd, on the subject of marine litter. It’s called “Let’s Turn the Tide”, and we hope that it will raise awareness of the problems facing marine ecosystems caused by plastic pollution.
Rather than a sign with a lot of words, explaining the science of the problem, we’ve selected a few quotes. If we’re right, the visual impact of the pictures made out of plastic will be something that people will remember – and the next time they are at a beach, they will pick up litter rather than drop it. Famous artists, such as Banksy, have produced many works of art about lots of different issues that could work to change people’s minds. In the past, people have used art to protest but also for propaganda.
• Is it possible to make something beautiful, out of something ugly?
Create a piece of art using waste materials. This does not have to be a picture – some suggestions would be:
• A pot plant, with the leaves made from cut-up crisp packets (deforestation)
• A shoal of fish made from bottles, hanging from string, with bubbles made from their caps (ocean plastics)
• An orang-utan made from wrappings of products that contain palm oil
• A collage tiger made from magazines and sweet wrappers
Your Task
• If we use plastic to make art, are we stopping it from being recycled?
• Can art change people’s opinions?
Class Discussion
Nested Life Cycle
Art
Learning Intention We are using art to communicate what we have learned about life cycles.
IntroductionCan you create a picture that shows the life cycle stages of an animal in a single image?One approach would be to start with a tiny egg in the centre of the paper, then draw the next life stage around it, and then the next…with each stage nested within the next.The drawings could be black and white line drawings, to keep the picture simple and clear, or you could decide to add colour to make the image more realistic or to make each stage stand out as different from the last.
Certain life cycles can be made more complex by including all the stages -
for example, amphibians could be:
ExtensionCan you think of a way to show that the life cycle returns to eggs, laid by an adult?
Egg
Tadpole
AdultOR
Egg
Tadpole
2 legged tadpole
4 legged tadpole
Adult
Write a short story - “My Sister, the Tadpole”
Literacy
Learning IntentionWe are using our understanding of life cycles to create a story.
IntroductionWe have been learning about the life cycles of different animal groups. But what if things were different? We are so familiar with our life cycle of adults having babies, which grow in to children and then into adults. Can you write a short story set in a world in which humans have a life cycle more similar to amphibians or insects? Mothers could lay eggs, and babies might pass through a tadpole stage!How would this change your life at home? And how would it change school? Kids in year 1 might still have gills, and need to breathe underwater, while year 6 pupils could be growing front legs!
Story StarterMy sister, the tadpole.
“Keep the eggs wet, darling, or they’ll never hatch!” my mother reminded me. It was the first day of the school holidays, and I wondered how many days I would spend pouring rain water over the eggs that my mother had laid in the bath…
RememberAmphibians lay soft, squishy eggs that don’t have a shell, and must be kept in water or moist.
Super Challenge!Can you write a haiku about amphibians?
Remember: 5 syllables in the first line, then 7 in the second, and 5 in the third. The best haiku have a ‘cutting’ word that creates a pause – often in the middle. An example would be this translation (which breaks the rules!) of an old haiku by Matsuo Basho:The old pond- a frog jumps in,sound of water.
Reptiles generally lay eggs with a hard or leathery shell, on land. Some females will guard their nests
Jo has been arrested near a wildlife reserve in Sulawesi, Indonesia. When they searched Jo’s bag, wardens found wire snares and a hunting knife. Wardens recognise Jo, and know that the teenager lives with his parents in a local village. Jo looks about fourteen years old, so he’s at an important point in his life. Jo has mentioned that ‘some men’ offered him money for yaki - critically endangered Sulawesi crested black macaques, which we also have at the zoo – which they will sell for meat.Can you write a letter to Jo, to persuade him that wildlife is worth saving?
Teacher NoteThis ties in with an important aspect of conservation – community engagement. In the past, wildlife reserves have been set up by throwing local people out. This led to the locals resenting the reserves, whatever good work they were attempting. Now, conservation organisations try to work with local communities so that they will help to save the wildlife too.Paignton Zoo supports an organisation called Selematkan Yaki, which works with communities to save the local wildlife by:
• Encouraging ecotourism
• Engaging communities and religious groups
• Working to provide sustainable livelihoods
• Encouraging pride in the yaki, as the area’s special animal
selamatkanyaki.ngo
Another good example of such work is:
www.dambari.com
Persuasive Writing:Letter to a Poacher
Literacy
Learning Intention We are developing our skills in finding and using information.
IntroductionDid you know, there were once frogs which look after their eggs by swallowing them – right into their stomach? Other amphibian babies survive and grow by eating their mother’s skin – while she’s still alive!Your task is to use the internet to find out about a weird way that amphibians look after their eggs or offspring, and then to make a bright zoo sign to tell people about it.As with all research, you need to work out who knows best – some information will be up-to-date and correct, while other sources may be telling the same old myths that came around years ago. How will you know? Look at the name of the organisation that produced the website, or the author. Try to find out when the website was produced – is it recent, or has it been made up years ago as part of someone’s school project?
Search termsChoosing your search terms carefully can save a lot of time! What information are you looking to find? You can decide for yourself whether something is ‘weird’ – so we’d suggest:
• Frog brooding strategies (brooding is the way an animal looks after its eggs or offspring, and a strategy)
• Amphibian parent care
• Or other similar combinations!Once you have done a little bit of research, choose one way in which amphibians breed that is particularly interesting – then, focus in on that. Try to find the information that will allow you to produce an interesting zoo sign –
• What is the name of the amphibian
• Where does it come from
• What about its breeding is particularly interesting
The Weird Lives of Baby Amphibians
Research
Your Task: Create a Zoo SignProduce a zoo sign using the information you have found, to be displayed next to the amphibian if we ever get the chance to keep it at Paignton Zoo. To get our visitors’ attention, use bright colours and eye-catching pictures. Keep the text to a minimum, so that they can read all of it in about 30 seconds.
