Studying the Ecology of a Habitat - Ecological Sampling - Oxford AQA A Level Biology

This collection of teaching resources provides an introduction to the Oxford AQA A Level Course (Unit 3 - Populations). These resources are also suitable for the AQA and Pearson Edexcel courses. Through this series of 5 fully resourced lessons students will acquire knowledge and skills in the following areas:

Lesson 1: An introduction to the course structure including examinations. An introduction to key ecology terms, distribution of populations, types of quadrats and the first stages of planning an investigation to sample a habitat.

Lesson 2: An introduction to the concept of niche, competition, biotic and abiotic factors. Students will also continue to plan their own investigation by writing a hypothesis and constructing a results table.

Lesson 3: In this lesson students will carry out their sample of a habitat. The lesson resource guides students through this including an analysis of the risks involved. This investigation can be carried out in a natural habitat or can be conducted inside as a simulation.

Lesson 4: Students will develop graph skills in this lesson by either analysing their own data or the sample data provided. Students will also explore exam style questions.

Lesson 5: This is the final lesson in the series of guiding students through the process of how to study the ecology of a habitat. Students will write a conclusion and evaluation. They will then carry out a Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test to explore the signifiance of any correlation found.