Primary 5 · Science · Biological sciences
Adaptations for survival
Students explore structural and behavioural adaptations of Australian animals and plants, such as the bilby's burrowing, the thorny devil's water-channelling skin and eucalypts' tough leaves.
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These lessons were written around Australian Curriculum strands and matched to Singapore levels by age (Primary 1 is the first year of primary school). They are not aligned to MOE syllabuses or the PSLE, so check them against the syllabus your child is working towards.
This lesson uses some Australian examples (places, animals or contexts). Swap in local examples from Singapore as you teach.
Learning goals
Learners will
- Explain what an adaptation is and how it helps a living thing survive in its environment.
- Tell the difference between structural and behavioural adaptations.
- Explain how adaptations of desert animals and plants help them cope with heat and very little water.
Success looks like
- I can explain what an adaptation is in my own words.
- I can sort adaptations into structural (body features) and behavioural (things a living thing does).
- I can explain how a feature such as a burrow, grooved skin or a waxy leaf helps a living thing survive.
The big idea
Every living thing has features that help it survive in the place where it lives. These features are called adaptations. An adaptation helps a plant or animal find food and water, stay at a safe temperature, avoid being eaten or have young.
There are two main kinds of adaptations that we can observe:
- Structural adaptations are body features. A camel's wide, flat feet stop it sinking into sand. A duck's webbed feet push water like paddles. A polar bear's thick fur and layer of fat keep it warm.
- Behavioural adaptations are things a living thing does. Some birds migrate long distances to find food. Some animals hibernate through the coldest months. Many desert animals are nocturnal: they hide from the heat by day and come out in the cool of the night.
Deserts are hot and dry, so desert living things show many clever adaptations for saving water and keeping cool. Many small desert mammals dig burrows and shelter underground during the day, where it is much cooler and damper than on the surface. Burrowing is a behavioural adaptation, and strong claws for digging are a structural adaptation that makes it possible.
Some desert lizards have skin covered in tiny grooves between their scales. When the lizard touches damp sand, dew or a puddle, water moves along the grooves all by itself, all the way to the corners of its mouth, so the lizard can drink. This water-channelling skin is a structural adaptation.
Plants have adaptations too. Many plants in hot, dry places have tough, thick leaves with a waxy coating that slows down water loss. A cactus has spines instead of broad leaves, which lose less water and protect it from thirsty animals, and a thick, spongy stem that stores water. Some trees hang their leaves edge-on to the Sun so the leaves do not get as hot.
Adaptations develop over a very long time, across many, many generations. An individual animal cannot decide to grow an adaptation because it needs one. Living things whose features suit their environment are more likely to survive and pass those features on to their young.
Worked examples
Structural or behavioural?
Sort these adaptations: a fennec fox's very large ears, a desert mouse sleeping in its burrow by day, a cactus's water-storing stem, birds flying away to find food when it gets cold.
- Ask: is it a body feature (structural) or something the living thing does (behavioural)?
- Large ears are part of the fox's body. They give off heat and help it hear prey, so this is structural.
- Sleeping in a burrow by day is something the mouse does, so this is behavioural.
- A water-storing stem is part of the cactus, so this is structural.
- Flying away to find food is something the birds do, so this is behavioural (migration).
Answer: Structural: fox's large ears, cactus stem. Behavioural: mouse sleeping in its burrow by day, birds migrating.
Modelling a waxy leaf
Does a waxy coating help a leaf keep its water? Use paper towels as model leaves.
- Wet two paper towels with the same amount of water and squeeze them out the same way. These are your two 'leaves'.
- Wrap one towel in baking paper or plastic wrap to act like a waxy coating. Leave the other uncovered.
- Put both on saucers in the same warm, sunny or breezy spot. Keeping everything else the same makes it a fair test.
- Check them after 2 hours and again the next morning by feeling how damp they are.
- The uncovered towel dries out first. The covered towel stays damp much longer because the coating slows evaporation.
Answer: Yes. The coated 'leaf' kept its water longer, just as a waxy coating slows water loss from real leaves in dry places.
Explain how an adaptation helps
Explain how burrowing helps a small desert animal survive.
- Name the problem in the environment: the desert surface gets very hot during the day and there is little water.
- Describe the adaptation: the animal digs a burrow and stays underground in the hottest part of the day.
- Link the adaptation to survival: underground is cooler and more humid, so the animal does not overheat and loses less water. It can come out to feed at night when it is cooler.
Answer: Burrowing lets the animal escape the daytime heat and save water, so it is more likely to survive in the desert.
Practice check
Have a go, then check your answers. Each answer comes with an explanation.
Answer guide for parents
Which of these is a structural adaptation?
A camel's wide, flat feet — Wide, flat feet are a body feature, so they are structural. The others are things animals do, which are behavioural.
Many desert animals rest in burrows during the day and come out at night. This is…
A behavioural adaptation — Choosing when and where to be active is something the animal does, so it is a behavioural adaptation.
How does a tough, waxy coating help a leaf in a hot, dry place?
It slows down water loss — The waxy layer acts like a raincoat in reverse: it keeps water inside the leaf from escaping.
What is the main job of a cactus's thick, spongy stem?
To store water — The stem stores water so the cactus can survive long dry periods.
A polar bear's thick fur and layer of fat mainly help it to…
Keep warm in a freezing environment — Fur and fat trap heat and stop the bear's body heat escaping into the icy air and water.
An adaptation that is a body feature, such as webbed feet or spines, is called a ________ adaptation.
structural — Body features are structural (sometimes called physical) adaptations.
What is it called when animals make a long journey, often at the same time each year, to find food or a place to breed?
migration — Migration is a behavioural adaptation.
Some desert lizards have tiny grooves in their skin. The grooves carry water from damp sand or dew to which part of the lizard's body?
mouth — Water travels along the grooves to the corners of the lizard's mouth so it can drink.
Watch out for
- Many students think an animal can grow an adaptation because it wants or needs one ('the fox grew big ears because it was hot'). Adaptations develop over many generations, as living things with useful features survive and pass those features on.
- Some think only animals have adaptations. Plants have many, such as waxy leaves, spines, deep roots and water-storing stems.
- Students sometimes mix up the two types. Use a simple test: if you could take a photo of it on a still animal, it is structural; if you need a video of the animal doing something, it is behavioural.
Tips for parents
- Choose one animal you can see nearby, such as a bird, lizard or pet, and list its structural and behavioural adaptations together.
- Keep asking 'How does that help it survive?' so your child links each feature to a problem in the environment.
- Safety: if you try the blubber model, check iced water is not so cold that it hurts, and keep the shortening for the experiment only, not for eating. Look at wild animals but do not touch them.
Go further
- Blubber model: put a little vegetable shortening in one zip-lock bag and press a second bag inside it to make a 'blubber glove'. Put one hand in the glove and the other bare hand into iced water for a few seconds and compare how cold each feels.
- Design a creature: invent an animal for a hot desert, a frozen ice sheet or the deep ocean. Label at least three structural and two behavioural adaptations.
- Look closely at the leaves of different garden or indoor plants. Which are thick and waxy, hairy, needle-like or broad and thin? Predict which plants come from dry places.
About 45 minutes
You'll need
- Two paper towels or two small sponges
- A sheet of baking paper or a small piece of plastic wrap
- Two saucers or plates
- Pictures or books showing animals and plants from deserts, polar regions, oceans and forests
- Optional: two zip-lock bags, vegetable shortening or lard, a bowl of iced water (for the blubber model)
- Paper and pencils for a 'design a creature' drawing
Key words
- adaptation
- A feature or behaviour that helps a living thing survive and reproduce in its environment.
- structural adaptation
- A body feature, such as thick fur, webbed feet, spines or waxy leaves.
- behavioural adaptation
- Something a living thing does, such as burrowing, migrating or being active at night.
- environment
- The surroundings where a living thing lives, including the weather, water, food and other living things.
- nocturnal
- Active at night and resting during the day.
- migration
- A long journey animals make, often at the same time each year, to find food, water or a place to breed.
Still tricky?
For parents
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