A My World and Textease support pack for KS2 Science with activities on most aspects of the Science curriculum relating to Living things in their environment appropriate for this age group including life processes, food chains and other feeding relationships, adapting to the habitat, following keys and micro-organisms. Full documenatation and sample screen shot PDF files may be viewed by clicking the links below.
THE TITLE AND THE CURRICULUM:
The title supports many of the National Curriculum requirements for Key Stage 2 relating to Living things in their environment. Some aspects of the KS3 syllabus have been included to enable gifted and talented pupils to make further
progress.
KEY STAGE 2 - SC2 LIFE PROCESSES AND LIVING THINGS - LIVING THINGS IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT:
Variation and classification:
4a) to make and use keys.
4b) how locally occurring plants can be identified and assigned to groups.
4c) that the variety of plants and animals makes it important to identify them and assign them to groups.
Adaptation:
5b) about the different plants and animals found in different habitats.
5c) how animals and plants in two different habitats are suited to their environment.
Feeding relationships:
5c) to use food chains to show feeding relationships in a habitat.
5e) how nearly all the food chains start with a green plant.
Micro-organisms:
That micro-organisms are living organisms that are too small to be seen and that they may be beneficial or harmful.
KEY STAGE 3 - SC2 LIFE PROCESSES AND LIVING THINGS - LIVING THINGS IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT:
Variation:
4b) to classify living things into major taxonomic groups.
Adaptation and competition:
5b) that habitats support a diversity of plants and animals that are interdependent.
Feeding relationships:
5e) about food webs composed of several food chains, and how food chains can be quantified using pyramids of numbers.
Click here for full documentation (70.2 KB)
Click here for sample screen shots (32 KB)
GENERAL INFORMATION:
PLEASE NOTE: THIS SOFTWARE REQUIRES MY WORLD OR TEXTEASE TO RUN. The Textease format has software speech. The My World format has scaling buttons that are particularly useful for children with VISUAL IMPAIRMENT. The CD-ROM includes both the the My World 3 and Textease format of the software. The My World 3 format self installs. The Textease format must be manually installed.
Both the English and English / Welsh versions of My World 3 are available from ClicSoft.
Living Things in their Environment is also available in Welsh.
The screens provide a variety of activities including dragging, labelling, sorting and investigative activities. Many may lead to related classroom activities e.g. 'hands on' practical work. Buttons enable pupils to access task, help and research panels enabling them to work individually or in groups with minimal teacher supervision. Text buttons, word and picture banks may be used to add further information to the screens.
A 'New Screen' option accessed via the Task panels is a useful extra function. The new screens are normally blank, but have the same buttons as the related screens. They may be customised by teachers and pupils alike and used to extend topic areas or complete tasks set by the teacher. They are useful when the related screens have fixed graphic / or text and for adapting the set activities for pupils with special needs.
This software is particularly useful for introducing new topic areas and revising previous topics. The nature of both My World and Textease means that the screens are adaptable. The software may be used as both text book and exercise book and may be customised by teachers and pupils alike. The screens do not self correct giving children the opportunity to make and justify their own decisions. With differentiation by outcome, each screen thus provides assessment opportunities.
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