In this activity, students learn about habitats, and why and how animals and plants are best suited to particular habitats.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- define a habitat
- describe why some animals and plants are particularly suited to their marine habitats
- begin to describe how a change in an environment might affect what lives there.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- what you need
- what to do
- student handouts.
This activity is based on an idea from Nicola Hancock.
Image acknowledgements
NIWA; Will Telford; Peter van Sark; 123RF Ltd; Ian Paterson, Creative Commons 2.0; Konstantinos Kourtidis, Demokritus University of Thrace, Xanthi – Greece Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0 ; Crown Copyright, Department of Conservation; David Cowles; Simon Franicevic; Sarah Hailes, NIWA. Creative Commons 3.0; Mike Martin, NIWA. Creative Commons 3.0; Simon & Maki; Robert Nyman, Creative Commons 2.0; Wild Blue; Barry Peters, Creative Commons 2.0; Tim Ransom; Malcolm Francis, NIWA. Creative Commons 3.0; Anna Barnett; David Baird, Creative Commons 2.0; Junya Kato; Stephen Wing, University of Otago.
Related content
Adaptation is an evolutionary process in which an organism becomes well suited to living in a particular habitat. These two Hub resources provide more information about marine adaptations: Adaptations of marine organisms and Adapting to marine habitats.
Marine habitats is another key science concept, this article focuses on the habitats in the Bay of Plenty.
See this curation of Science Learning Hub content related to the rocky shore in the Living World strand of the New Zealand Curriculum for more helpful resources.
Activity ideas
Explore some of the adaptations fish use for camouflage in Hiding in plain sight.
In Animal and plant adaptations, use reading skills to locate and integrate information about animal and plant adaptions, and use these to design a unique animal or plant.
Estuary metaphors uses everyday objects as metaphors for estuary functions
Useful links
Explore the rocky shore – activities for seashore exploration for primary and intermediate levels from the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, University of Otago.
Estuary discovery – PDF of activities designed to raise awareness in caring for local ecosystems from Tauranga City Council.
