Year 7 Science · Unit 1 · Lesson 12

Adapted to Survive: Investigating an Australian Habitat

Foundation Worksheet

Name

Date

Class

Learning Goals

Define adaptation and habitat, and sort Australian examples into structural and behavioural adaptations.
Match an adaptation to the condition in its habitat that it answers.
Use survey results to link where organisms live to the conditions there.

Warm Up

Fill the gap

Choose the correct word from the word bank. Each word is used once. Two words are not needed: cross them out.

quadrat behavioural conditions adaptation nucleus survey structural vertebrate habitat

An is a feature that helps an organism survive and reproduce where it lives. The place it lives is its , and the temperature, water and light there are the an adaptation answers. A thick waxy leaf is a adaptation; sheltering in shade at midday is a adaptation. To find out what lives in a place without changing anything, scientists carry out a , using a square frame called a to decide where to look.

1. What is an adaptation? Your answer must say what it does and where it does it.

Recall 2 marks

Your Turn

Sort it: structural or behavioural?

Test each one: could you photograph it (structural), or would you have to watch the organism over time (behavioural)? Write each item in the correct box. The boxes do not hold the same number of items.

a frill-neck lizard’s frill of skin a kangaroo licking its forearms when hot an echidna’s sticky tongue a brush turkey building a mound to warm its eggs a banksia’s woody seed pods a frill-neck lizard spreading its frill when threatened a wombat’s backward-facing pouch a skink basking on a rock in the morning a pelican’s large throat pouch

Structural (a body feature)

Behavioural (something it does)

Match each feature to the condition it answers

Write the letter of the condition in the middle column. Each letter is used once.

Feature	Letter	Condition in the habitat
Mallee eucalypt: vertical, waxy leaves		A. Free water is almost never available.
Mallee eucalypt: an underground lignotuber full of buds		B. Deep shade under a tall canopy.
Tree fern: broad, thin fronds held flat		C. Scorching ground by day, cooler soil underground.
Thorny devil: grooved scales that carry water to its mouth		D. Fire that burns the plant to the ground.
Bilby: long, strong digging claws		E. Intense midday sun and little rain.

2. Mallee eucalypt leaves hang vertically instead of lying flat. Explain how this helps the tree in a hot, dry habitat.

Apply 2 marks

Go Deeper

Read the survey results

Scenario: a school garden bed

A class surveyed a garden bed with one end in full sun and the other shaded by a large tree. At each end they placed a 50 cm quadrat at four set points, 1 m apart, and counted the moss patches inside.

Table 1. Moss patches counted in each quadrat (Q1 to Q4)

End of the bed	Soil	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Sunny	Dry	0	0	1	0
Shaded	Damp	4	6	3	5

Source: made-up sample class results for this worksheet.

3. Add up the moss patches counted at each end of the garden bed.

Apply 2 marks

Sunny end patches

Shaded end patches

4. Name one condition in Table 1 that differs between the two ends. Explain how it could account for where the moss was found.

Analyse 2 marks

Show What You Know

5. A desert thorny devil has grooved scales that carry dew to its mouth, and colouring that matches red sand. It is moved to a Tasmanian rainforest: water everywhere, ground covered in green moss. For each feature, say what it solves in the desert and what it is worth in the rainforest. Then finish: “An adaptation is only an advantage when …”

Analyse 5 marks

Answer Key (for teachers)

Fill the gap

adaptation; habitat; conditions; structural; behavioural; survey; quadrat. Not used: nucleus, vertebrate.

Question 1

A feature that helps an organism survive and reproduce (1) in the habitat where it lives (1). [2 marks]

Sort it: structural or behavioural?

Structural: frill of skin; echidna’s tongue; banksia seed pods; wombat’s pouch; pelican’s throat pouch. Behavioural: kangaroo licking its forearms; brush turkey building a mound; frill-neck spreading its frill; skink basking.

Match each feature to the condition it answers

Mallee eucalypt: vertical, waxy leaves → E; Mallee eucalypt: an underground lignotuber full of buds → D; Tree fern: broad, thin fronds held flat → B; Thorny devil: grooved scales that carry water to its mouth → A; Bilby: long, strong digging claws → C.

Question 2

Midday sun strikes a vertical leaf edge-on, so less sunlight hits it (1), so it heats less and loses less water (1). [2 marks]

Question 3

Sunny end 1 (1); shaded end 4 + 6 + 3 + 5 = 18 (1). [2 marks]

Question 4

Soil: dry in the sun, damp in the shade (or light) (1). Moss needs damp conditions, so it grows where the soil stays damp (1). [2 marks]

Question 5

Marking guide: 1 grooves answer the lack of free water; 1 worth little where water is everywhere; 1 colouring hides it on red sand; 1 it stands out on green moss; 1 sentence finished with the habitat idea. [5 marks]

Model answer: In the desert free water is rare, so grooves carrying dew to its mouth let it drink; in a rainforest they are worth almost nothing. Its colouring hides it on red sand but makes it stand out to predators on green moss. An adaptation is only an advantage when the organism is in the conditions the feature suits.

Common error: calling the kangaroo’s forearm-licking structural because it uses a body part; anything the animal does is behavioural.