Lesson 2
Human adaptation's
Learning intention
We are learning to describe adaptations.
Success criteria
We can define the word adaptation.
We can identify adaptations of the human body that help us survive.
Activity 1 - How can we use our own bodies to learn about adaptations?
An adaptation is a feature of a living thing that helps it survive in its environment.
Homo Sapiens are commonly known as humans. All humans have the same basic body structures and use them in very similar ways.
Tasks
- View the Human adaptations video.
- List some human body structures or behaviours that you think are adaptations.
- Describe the function of one adaptation. View the vocabulary list below.
- Write a brief explanation of how you think the adaptation helps us survive in our environment. Refer to student work sample below.
Human adaptations | Field of Mars EEC (3:27 min) | YouTube
Sweat pores – make sweat which cools us down
Different types of teeth – for eating different things, such as molars for chewing and incisors for tearing
Eyelashes – keep dust out of our eyes
Fingernails – make the tips of our fingers stronger and help when doing fiddly things
Flat feet – enable us to stand
Opposable thumb – enables us to grip things
Vocal chords – enable us to communicate with sound and language which helps us understand and work together
Ears – directs sounds into our ear canals so we can hear
Human adaptations by D Watson, Class 5P
Eyebrows stop sweat from our foreheads getting into our eyes. This keeps our eyesight clear on hot days. Clear eyesight means we can move around and do tasks safely, even when we are sweating. Therefore, eyebrows are an adaptation that helps humans survive in hot environments.
Dr. Watson:
Hello? Scientific detectives! How may we be of service?
Now now! Don't get too upset!
Of course we're going to tell you more.
Now that you know the language of living things and how they survive it is indeed time to tell you how adaptations work.
Eh? No don't worry, you're not going to hear anything else from me.
I've got just the chap to tell you about it! He's an Australian - just like you. Let's watch him now.
Aussie Pat:
Hi everyone! In these videos we're going to be looking at adaptations.
An adaptation is any structure or behaviour that a living thing has which helps it to survive in its environment.
What we're going to do now is work on identifying and describing some HUMAN adaptations.
First thing, Our hands! We've got fantastic hands. The fingers are on one side and the thumb is on the other.
Now this is a great adaptation because it enables us to use tools which help us to survive, and not just big tools like scissors or shovels but also fine tools such as pencils and pens that we can do very clever, fine work with.
Now let's look at our eyes. Our eyes are positioned close together on the front of our head.
This is an adaptation because both our eyes see nearly the same thing, which is great for avoiding things which might get into our face, or seeing things in fine detail, or even catching things that are on the move. What a great adaptation.
Humans also have big brains and big brains are useful for solving problems and planning things.
I had to plan what i was going to say in this video and I hope that this video helps you understand about adaptations so we can all solve problems together as a community. So our big brains are another adaptation.
OK, so now it's your turn.
I'd like you to try identifying and describing some human adaptations. There are some suggestions down below this video.
What i need you to do is: identify a structure or a behavior that humans do, and then talk about how that helps them survive in their environment.
If you can do that then you've explained a human adaptation.
Good luck!
Dr. Watson:
There! What did I tell you? Wasn't he a sterling chap? Absolutely not! I am an only child!
Now, why don't you try to be a sport and have a go at the task that he set you in the video?
The details are below.
And, in future, when you make contact can you use your big human brain and try to use a more modern telecommunications technique?
Haven't you heard of ZOOM? Hmm? Thank you. Goodbye!!
End of transcript.