Secondary and post-16 resources
Resources on this page: How do you like your eggs in the morning? Eco Divo, Baboon social structures, Moths adaptations and predators, Feed the birds, The art of communication, Foraging behaviour in bumblebees, Investigating ant behaviour, Parental behaviour in burying beetles, Foraging behaviour in leaf cutting ants, Parental behaviour in nuthatches, Working with scientific literature, Animal Behaviour, Turn alternation in woodlice, The birds and the bees, Human fear of animals, Behaviour of north Atlantic gannets, Brine shrimp ecology, Stimulus response.
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS IN THE MORNING?
Using cuckoo behaviour to investigate natural selection through role play.
This teaching resource provides an original approach to teaching natural selection, as well as providing opportunities for developing other key scientific skills such as experimental design and research
Eco-Divo is an educational card game you can play in two ways. Learn about ecosystems and biodiversity. Explore the fascinating natural history of organisms in the United Kingdom. Discover species interactions, human impacts and diversity while competing or collaborating in building a fascinating food web.
Created by Cedric Tan and his collaborators Ada Grabowska, David Pigot and Alison Poole, University of Oxford.
Who's your daddy? Baboon social structures
This lesson, which works best with KS4 students, gives a flavour of behavioural ecology in the context of African field work, using role play. Some students play the part of baboons, and others play biologists, studying the baboons in their "natural habitat".
Moths, Adaptations, and Predators
In order to avoid predators, the caterpillars of some species of moths rest during the day by masquerading as twigs, well-camouflaged and keeping their bodies rigid and still. The aim of the investigation is to determine if caterpillars of the peppered moth show a preferred angle of rest.
Feed the birds
This resource allows students to recognise common birds and to carry out two investigations which involve the feeding behaviour of birds.
1. Observing garden birds to study the effect of the colour of food items on consumption.
2. Observing scavenger birds in the school playground to study inter- and intra-specific competition between birds.
Showing Off - the Art of Communication
These resources explore the use of camouflage, colour and toxins by both predators and prey. The first activity looks at the life cycle of ladybirds and their behaviour. Students also investigate whether the colour of food or prey has a stronger effect when clumped together and whether the bright colours and patterns on adders could be used as both camouflage and as a warning signal to predators.
Curriculum links include adaptation, food webs, taxis, interdependence, data analysis.
Foraging Behaviour in Bumblebees
This resources aims to enable students to identify the most common species of bumblebee; introduce students to methods for observing, recording and analysing bumblebee behaviour in natural environments; enhance students’ understanding of the process of conducting a scientific investigation; develop students’ awareness of the environmental importance of bumblebees in pollination; and encourage students’ appreciation of, and care for, the natural environment.
Investigating Ant Behaviour
This resource provides opportunities for students to follow instructions, design investigations, carry out, record and present data, use appropriate statistical tests, interpret secondary data, consider limitations to scientific evidence and ethical issues involved when using animals in investigations.
Parental Behaviour in Burying Beetles
This resource pack focuses on parental behaviour in burying beetles. Students record the frequency and duration of the amount of parental behaviour exhibited by a female beetle and incorporate their findings, with results from earlier research, to complete a data set. They then carry out graphical representation and statistical analysis before answering some follow-up questions to consolidate the learning experience.
Parental behaviour in nuthatches
This resource pack focuses on parental behaviour in nuthatches, in particular the parent-chick interactions during feeding. The background notes on the bird provide details of its breeding biology, three interactive exercises for data analysis and a set of additional, differentiated, exercises related to aspects of nuthatch behaviour and based on secondary source material.
Working with Scientific Literature
This pack provides a stimulating way of learning about scientific journal articles and highlights the difference between ‘research’ and ‘review’ papers.
Summary of learning pack
Living 'links' to Scottish curriculum
Summary of paper in Journal of Chemical Ecology
Journal of Chemical Ecology paper
Summary of paper in Naturwissenschaften
Animal Behaviour: Practical Work and Data Response Exercises
The aim of this resource is to encourage the use of more practical work on animal and human behaviour and to enable students to develop an understanding of some basic principles of animal behaviour, relevant to biology and psychology.
The birds and the bees:
What they tell us about Human reproductive behavior
This booklet addresses five examples of human behaviour related to reproduction and sexual orientation; namely, rape, adultery, female promiscuity, homosexuality and
Human fear of animals
This resource is produced by The Manchester Museum for AS/A2 students of Psychology and is focused on human fears of animals. Specifically targets those of Edexcel and the Welsh Board as the Bennet-Levy and Marteau study (1984) is one of the key studies students need to be familiar with. Written by Michael Dockery.'