Year 7 Science Excursion to the Melbourne Zoo

In Term 3, all Year 7 Home Groups visited Melbourne Zoo. We walked around learning about all the different types of animals. It was a very exciting experience to journey through the different sections of the zoo and observe the features that make animals so incredible. The entire trip was a fun way of teaching us the difficult concepts of Ecosystems and Classifications, which without this excursion would have been hard to understand and grasp. Students were challenged to classify animals, determine their individual adaptations which included structural, physiological and behavioural that aided with their survival in the wild. Students also learnt food chains and feeding patterns of animals which enabled them to thrive in their environment and ensure species survival. 

The purpose of this excursion was to expand our knowledge on this topic as well as to record information for our project. This project had many components. It was one where we had to choose five different animals at Melbourne Zoo, classify them, draw food chains, research a lot more on them. At the zoo we were able to take photos of the animals for fun and to later use them as reference. Another part of this exciting excursion was when we took part in an educational talk with a zoo member. He was super friendly and taught us about evolution, even giving us animal skulls to try and figure out which animal was which. Then we went on a walk and talked about the characteristics that a monkey developed to better survive in its environment. 

All in all, this was a super fun experience, and we are so thankful to our Science teachers and all the others that accompanied us on this trip. Additionally, thank you to the Melbourne Zoo staff who were so passionate about teaching us. 

Celina Weir-Marshall and Reuben Talpan (7.4)