Plants. Animals. Evolution. Ecology. Our focus this term is the biosphere, but we'll need to interact with other Earth spheres such as the hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere to get the big picture of how plants and animals survive on our planet.

image source: https://www.tiakitamakimakaurau.nz/discover-tamaki-makaurau/learn-about-...

Photosynthesis and respiration are basic life processes, so we'll start with these. Moving on, we'll cover ecology and ecosystem models which help us understand how the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) parts of the environment interact with each other. Importantly, we ask how humans impact on ecosystems. We will use A/NZ case studies and examine how our plants and animals have developed unique features in order to live on our islands.

Once we have some basic knowledge, we'll choose a local ecosystem and organise a field trip to gather data about the species present and their interactions with their environment.

Assessment
-Ongoing class tasks and discussions
-Individual study of an overseas ecosystem to be presented as a poster. For instance, the Brazilian Rainforests, the Gobi or Antarctic Deserts, the Russian Steppes, the High Alps..
-Field work investigation of a local ecosystem