Learning Objective

By the end of this lesson pupils should;:

• Explore the variability of gestation periods of different mammals

 

Resources

• Powerpoint: 'development of the human foetus'

• List of mammal gestation periods

• Powerpoint: 'animals and their young'

 

Vocabulary

gestation, womb, species

 

Starter activity 

1. Class Activity:

Watch Powerpoint: 'development of the human foetus'

 

Main activities 

1. Teaching Point:

Introduce concept of period in womb being 'gestation'. This varies (sometimes markedly) from species to species.

 

2. Individual Activity:

Study list of mammal gestation periods and graphically represent this information (i.e. bar graph).

 

3. Group Activity:

What conclusions can the children extrapolate from this data?e.g. relation (if any) of length of gestation period to animal size, habitat, etc.

 

4. Teaching Point:

Introduce concept of post-birth dependency period.

 

5. Class Activity:

Watch Powerpoint: 'animals and their young'.

 

6. Class Discussion:

Why might some animals require a longer post-birth dependency period than others?

 

Plenary activity 

Q: How long is a human being dependent on its parent?

Assessment

.................

 

 

Downloadable lesson plan and resources