The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

Year 5W News

In 5W, we have been looking at the transdisciplinary theme of 'Sharing the Planet'. Our central idea has allowed us to look at human interaction with the environment, how organisms are connected in nature and the interdependence within ecosystems and biomes. Through this lens the boys have been researching into different biomes in North and South America with the final process of the research to lead into a written report. Further to this, we have looked at food webs and food chains and the consequences of organisms dying out of a food chain. We have used our reading time to look at a range of articles which we have added to our cross-classification chart on adaptations. These articles ranged from looking at why polar bears have fair hair, the impacts of a large spleen on the Bajau people, bioluminescence, why astronauts get space sick, the vomiting of the Bombardier Beetle and African runners. This gave us a broad idea of adaptations. This will finally lead us on to our final task of creating a creature to adapt to a range of conditions in different biomes.

Mr Andrew Wells
Year 5 Teacher