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Science // Animals of the World

Understand that animals communicate in many different ways — birds sing to attract mates and defend territory, whales call across vast ocean distances, bees…

Science // Animals of the World

Understand that biodiversity — the variety of different species in an ecosystem — is essential for healthy ecosystems, and that keystone species (like wolves in…

Science // Animals of the World

Know how people work to protect endangered animals — through national parks and marine reserves, captive breeding programmes (like those that saved the…

Science // Animals of the World

Understand why some animal species become endangered or go extinct — habitat destruction, hunting/poaching, pollution, climate change, and invasive species…

Science // Animals of the World

Understand that invasive species are animals (or plants) that have been introduced to a place where they don't naturally belong — like grey squirrels…

Science // Animals of the World

Understand that animals have structural adaptations (body features like the giraffe's long neck, eagle's talons, dolphin's streamlined shape), behavioural…

Science // Animals of the World

Understand symbiosis — close relationships between different species — including mutualism (both benefit, like clownfish and anemones), commensalism (one…

Science // Animals of the World

Explore animal intelligence and complex behaviour — chimpanzees and crows use tools, dolphins recognise themselves in mirrors, octopuses solve puzzles and…

Science // Animals of the World

Introduce the Red Queen hypothesis — species must keep evolving just to maintain fitness relative to co-evolving partners; describe predator-prey arms races…

Science // Animals of the World

Quantify the current biodiversity crisis: extinction rates 100-1000x the background rate; explain methods for measuring biodiversity loss (species-area…

Science // Animals of the World

Explain sexual selection as a form of natural selection: runaway selection for peacock tails, bird of paradise displays, and frog calls; explain kin selection…

Science // Animals of the World

Explain how deep-sea animals cope with crushing pressure (no gas-filled spaces, flexible proteins, pressure-adapted enzymes); describe thermoregulation extremes…

Science // Animals of the World

Explain cladistics: organisms are grouped by shared derived characters, not just similarity; how phylogenetic trees are built using molecular data (DNA sequence…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that dinosaurs were real animals that lived on Earth a very long time ago and are now extinct — none are alive today

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that fossils are the remains of ancient living things preserved in rock, and that scientists called palaeontologists study fossils to learn about…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Recognise and name common well-known dinosaur species: Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Brachiosaurus/Diplodocus, describing a basic feature of…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Sort dinosaurs into plant-eaters (herbivores) and meat-eaters (carnivores) by looking at clues like tooth shape — flat teeth for plants, sharp teeth for meat

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Compare dinosaur sizes to familiar things — some dinosaurs were as tall as a house, others were as small as a chicken — and understand that dinosaurs came in a…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Distinguish real dinosaurs from fictional or commonly confused creatures — pterosaurs (flying reptiles) and plesiosaurs (marine reptiles) were not dinosaurs…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that fossils tell us not only about ancient animals but also about ancient environments — for example, marine fossils found on a mountaintop show…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Explain in simple terms how fossils form: an organism dies and is quickly buried in sediment; over millions of years minerals replace the remains and the…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Describe what coprolites are (fossilised dinosaur dung) and how palaeontologists analyse them to discover what dinosaurs ate, including plant fragments, bones…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Distinguish body fossils (preserved bones, teeth, shells) from trace fossils (footprints, trackways, eggs, burrows, coprolites) and explain what each type can…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Place the three periods of the Mesozoic Era — Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous — in order and understand that different dinosaurs lived in different periods…