Lesson 4
Investigating adaptations
Learning intention
We are learning how to scientifically investigate adaptations
Success criteria
We can identify the skills and methods used in a fieldwork investigation.
We can follow the scientific process to answer questions about living things in their environment.
We can describe how scientists use fieldwork to study the adaptations of living things.
Activity 1 - How do scientists investigate adaptations?
It’s easy to use the Internet or read a book to learn about the adaptations of living things. But have you ever wondered where all of this valuable information came from in the first place?
Scientists!
Scientists are always making observations about the features and behaviours of living things.
These observations spark interesting questions about why living things have these features or behaviours.
Scientists investigate their questions by collecting and analysing data on living things as well as the environment in which they live.
This allows them to draw conclusions on how the features and behaviours in question relate to challenges in the environment.
Tasks
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View the solving the curious case of the mysterious noise video
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Use information from the video to answer the following questions. To complete the questions digitally on Google docs, make a copy of the student sheet.
- What features and behaviours of the Australian brush turkey did you observe in the video that may help it overcome challenges in its environment?
- What question(s) were asked that led to the investigation?
- What prediction was made about the brush turkey mound?
- What data was collected to investigate the question?
- What tools and equipment were used to collect data about the brush turkey mound and the environment?
- Why were the soil and air temperatures measured at the same time?
- Why were the measurements repeated over two weeks?
- How was the data represented so that it could be interpreted?
- What conclusions could be made about how building mounds is an adaptation of the Australian brush turkey?
Solving the curious case of the mysterious noise | Field of Mars EEC (6:07 mins) | YouTube
I was walking through the bush earlier when I heard this mysterious noise, it sounded like a... like a scratching. I was afraid it might be... a drop bear! Will you help investigate it with me?
Oh hey look at that bird! Who's. That. Bird?!
What tools do you think I could use to find out? Oh, I know!
According to my trusty bird identification book, this bird's an Australian brush turkey. I can tell he's a male because of his bright yellow wattle.
Ohhhhh! So that's where the mysterious noise was coming from! This brush turkey is using his big strong legs and huge feet to rake these leaves into this... um... mound? Well we've got to get a closer look at this.
Hey, are you seeing what I'm seeing? How strange - I can see steam coming off this thing. It. it feels warm too. I better record my observations before I forget!
Hey look that's a female. She's approaching the mound, it kind of looks like she's inspecting it! I wonder where the male went?
Oh look there he is behind the mound! Oh! That's interesting. Hmm all of these observations are making me curious.
Why is this male turkey building a mound? Was he trying to attract that female?
Is this mound actually a nest that he's preparing for her? If so why would a nest need to be so... warm?
I sense an inference coming along.
I've seen chickens sit on their eggs to keep them warm to incubate them. I wonder if brush turkeys build these mounds to incubate their eggs? Let me google it.
*gasp* No internet connection!
(voiceover) Okay Zoomer, calm down. Who needs the internet anyway when you've got the power of science!
If my inference is true and these brush turkey mounds are incubators for their eggs, then that should mean the temperature inside the mound should stay stable no matter what the temperature outside is doing.
I predict that the temperature inside the brush turkey mound won't change throughout the day, but the temperature outside will.
Okay time to test out our predictions about temperature. But how exactly do I do that?
In science class I learned that we use thermometers to measure temperature, so I'm going to use a glass thermometer to measure the air temperature outside of the mound and a soil thermometer to measure the temperature inside the mound.
For a fair test, I'm going to take my measurements together and at these exact times - 7 a.m, midday, and 5 p.m. I'll record my data on a table in my phone.
Oh no, it looks like the weather's going to change a bit this week! I better repeat my test for the next two weeks just to check for the reliability of my results.
(Two weeks later.) Okay it's number crunching time!
So I've calculated averages of my data, and plotted them on a line graph so I can see the changes in temperature over time.
I can see that the temperature of the air outside the mound increases from morning to midday and then decreases again towards the evening, but despite this the temperature of the mound doesn't really change all that much throughout the day.
So based on my experimental evidence my prediction was correct! These mounds do maintain a stable temperature just like an incubator.
So these mounds could very well be special nests that the brush turkeys make to incubate their eggs. This would ensure the perfect conditions for the growth and development of their chicks no matter what the temperature outside is.
The more chicks that successfully hatch because of this then the more brush turkeys there'll be in general... and all without the need for the adult turkeys to sit on their eggs all day!
Clever bird!
Boy, am I glad we got to the bottom of that one!
But now I'm wondering. How do brush turkeys sense temperature in order to check whether the mounds are the right temperature?
Here we go again!
end of transcript