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Superv
When your class comes to Adelaide Zoo for the iPad Adaptation Adventure, these notes will help
adult supervisors to support student learning.
This inquiry-based learning experience engages students to explore adaptations by observing real animals,
and recording their experiences on their iPads.
Supervisors can help students by encouraging discussion without giving the answers away. Allow
students to make mistakes and work through problems with their class mates. Don’t rush, its not a race.
Students can study one or more of these animals;
1. Little Blue Penguin
2. Cassowary
3. Aldabra Tortoise
4. Poison Dart Frog
5. Yellow-footed Rock-Wallaby
6. White-cheeked Gibbon
Hints
Take a photo of the group at each enclosure using Book Creator. Ask
students to document their responses to questions in the Book Creator App
Supervisors can help students to orientate themselves using the Zoo map. Locate North (there are apps
on your smart phone for doing this) and point the top of the map North.
Supervisors ask students to protect themselves from the sun, observe animals as quietly as possible
and work as a team to discuss answers. If the group comes up with multiple answers, record them all.
Tap the top left hand corner of the eBook to return to chapter headings.
Little Blue Penguin
Allow students to observe the Penguin enclosure and encourage them to discuss what they notice.
Penguins sleep and find shelter in the nesting boxes and burrows. In the wild they hunt for food in the
sea but at the Zoo they are fed by hand. Penguins dig burrows, and build nests among rocks and logs
and use plants to build a nest. In the ‘Test Your Knowledge’ section discuss questions as a group and
ask one student to answer the question on the iPad. Read all of the information signs around the
enclosure. The answers are there!
Use the Book Creator App on the iPad to record the groups response. Make sure all of the students
contribute to group answers.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/
book/adaptation-adventure/
id1093382182?mt=11
Cassowary
Allow students to observe the Cassowary and its enclosure and encourage them to discuss what they notice.
The Cassowary can be a very aggressive bird, lives in forests in Northern Australia and cannot fly. The crown
on its head is called a ‘casque’. Use the Book Creator App on the iPad to record student responses. Make
sure all of the students contribute to group answers.
Aldabra Giant Tortoise
Allow students to observe the tortoise and its enclosure and encourage them to discuss what they notice.
In the eBook glossary it mentions that reptiles are cold blooded and lay eggs. Scientists are more likely to
use the word ectothermic and avoid using the term cold blooded, because a reptiles temperature varies
with the external environment. Discuss with your students that reptiles get their energy from the sun where
as mammals generate energy from the food they eat. In the ‘Test Your Knowledge’ section, one of the
answers says that tortoises and turtles don’t eat meat. Some do eat meat, especially carrion (animals
already dead), however the majority of their diet is vegetarian. Use the Book Creator App on the iPad to
record student responses. Make sure all of the students contribute to group answers.
Poison Dart Frog
Allow students to observe the Poison Dart Frog and its enclosure and encourage them to discuss what they
notice. There are many different types of Poison Dart Frogs. Some are threatened species and some are
not. Their bright colour indicates their toxicity and their diet, ie the brightly coloured species eat ants, mites
and termites, which makes them more poisonous to other animals that might eat them. The less brightly
coloured species eat a larger variety of prey and are not as poisonous.
Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby
Allow students to observe the wallabies and its enclosure and encourage them to discuss what they notice.
There are many different types of wallabies in Australia. Some are threatened species and some are not.
This species of wallaby was formerly known as the ring-tailed wallaby. Their natural habitat is rough terrain
and rock outcroppings. They are very agile, scaling cliffs and climbing rocks and leaping chasms.
White-cheeked Gibbon
Allow students to observe the Gibbons and its enclosure and encourage them to discuss what they notice.
Some gibbons in Asia are threatened and some are not. Our gibbons are a family. Dad, Mum and two
daughters. Their feet have toes that are like hands, making them excellent at moving through trees.
Use the Book Creator App on the iPad to record student responses. Make sure all of the students contribute
to group answers. Because Zoo Keepers feed animals at the zoo you will see places in the gibbon enclosure
where food is hidden so they have to search for it. We call this enrichment. Enrichment covers all of the
activities that Zoos provide for animals to keep them psychologically happy and physically fit.