These resources, inspired by the Penguin Watch and Seabird research projects include: making foodwebs (KS3), counting penguins and think about uncertainty in data (KS4), playing the role of a penguinologists studying penguin populations to write recommendations for policy (KS4), and evaluating conflicting evidence and making recommendations (KS5).
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KS3 - Antarctic Relationhips
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KS4 - Penguin Counting
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KS4 - Penguin Populations
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KS5 - Conflict Case Study
In this activity, students use information about Antarctic organisms to build a food web, and then use this to work out how changes to other populations could affect the chinstrap penguin population.
Teacher Notes
Student Worksheet
In this activity, students take part in a simulated version of the project by studying images taken by the cameras to learn about why we repeat measurements in science, and what calculating uncertainty can tell us about data quality.
Teacher Notes
Student Worksheets
Counting Task
In this activity, students plot data that shows the change in population of two penguin species living on the same Antarctic island. They then use different sources of information, including a food web, to decide possible hypotheses for the changes in each species’ population and use this to write recommendations to policy makers on what they should be doing to protect the Antarctic.
Teacher Notes
Student Worksheet
In this activity, students explore a group of islands in the Southern Atlantic Ocean (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands), which are a habitat to major populations of seabirds and marine mammals but are particularly sensitive to fishing, climate change and other human disturbances. They evaluate conflicting evidence to decide if policy makers should extend the Marine Protected Area (MPA) around the islands.
Teacher Notes
Student Worksheet