# Another teacher’s experience

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Transcript

Musu teaches JSS 1. She is keen to use more interactive teaching in her Science lessons and planned the following lesson to involve all the students at a level that they could understand.

Musu planned that the students, as part of the Science curriculum, would learn about the classification and adaptation of domestic and wild animals. The day before the lesson, she asked them to bring some pictures of animals that live in their area for their Science class. She also looked for some pictures herself, as she knew that not all the students would be able to bring in a picture.

In the lesson, Musu asked some of the class to tell her what they knew about these animals and then she asked others what they would like to know about the animals. Many of them wanted to know about their life cycle, their habits, how to look after them and what they eat.

Musu divided the class into pairs each and asked them to classify each of the animals into one of two groups:

- Animals we keep and use in different ways (e.g. for meat, milk and travel)
- Animals we do not keep or use

Musu then introduced the concept of adaption and gave examples of how different species adapt to the environment in which they develop. She told the story of Charles Darwin’s voyage in the Beagle to the Galapagos Islands and the discoveries he made there.

She asked the pairs to discuss this. Then she asked each pair to work with another pair for ten minutes to produce examples of three animals that demonstrated different forms of adaption. Each group of four then presented one of their animals to the class, explaining what form the adaption took (Musu used the example of polar bears to describe what they had to do). No group could present an animal already identified and Musu drew up a list on a flipchart. She then used this for a rapid question-and-answer session to complete the lesson.

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