Living Systems | Kamay Botany Bay EEC

Stage 4 - Science

Location

Kamay Botany Bay Environmental Education Centre, Kamay Botany Bay National Park, Kurnell

Overview

The Living systems program provides students with first-hand fieldwork experiences in the coastal ecosystems of Kamay Botany Bay National Park. Students investigate coastal woodland and marine rock platform environments, examining how living things are adapted to survive in their habitats.

Through field observations, classification activities, abiotic measurements and ecosystem investigations, students develop an understanding of the relationships between organisms and their environment, including how matter and energy flow through ecosystems.

The program also explores human impacts, population changes and sustainable environmental management, including the importance of Aboriginal knowledge in caring for Country.

Students engage in scientific practices such as observation, data collection, classification, analysis and communication to develop their understanding of how ecosystems function as interconnected living systems.

student with living things found in the rock platform
students filling out their fieldwork journal by the rock platform
Key syllabus outcomes
  • SC4-LIV-01 - describes the role, structure and function of a range of living systems and their components
  • SC4-WS-02 identifies questions and makes predictions to guide scientific investigations
  • SC4-WS-05 uses a variety of ways to process and represent data
Learning across the curriculum content
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
  • Sustainability
  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Difference and diversity
Suggested timetable
10.00 - 10:30 Introduction, toilets & fruit break/recess.
10:30 - 11:30 Coastal woodland ecosystem investigation
11:30 - 12:30 Animal adaptations investigation
12:30 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 Marine rock platform ecosystem
2:00 Toilet break, reflection, wrap up, roll call and departure

* There may be variations to timetable based on specific location, group size and weather

Students will

Risk Assessment

Student wellbeing form

Permission to publish