Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

Definition: What are Irregular Shapes?

Irregular shapes are shapes where the sides and interior angles are different. They can be more challenging for children to identify, as they don’t resemble conventional shapes. On the other hand, regular shapes have sides that are all the same length and equal angles, so often, they’re a little easier to identify.

Consider looking around you in the classroom and bringing irregular shapes to life! Please pick up a pencil case, a book, an eraser, or a football, and discuss what makes them regular or irregular. You could go on a school scavenger hunt, encouraging your class to look for as many irregular 3D shapes as possible.

While rectangles may seem like regular shapes because they are standard and learned early in maths classes, they are irregular. For example, the only regular quadrilateral is a square because all sides and angles are of equal length.

When talking about different shapes, children will continue to use the names of the shapes. For instance, a shape with six sides of varying lengths and interior angles which measure differently is still a hexagon. However, they’ll often add the word ‘irregular’ in front of it to indicate that the shape’s sides and angles aren’t equal. So, they’ll call it an irregular hexagon.

Of course, there are more examples of irregular shapes – not just hexagons and rectangles. Furthermore, every shape can have a rare version. So let’s dive deeper to see what irregular 2D and irregular 3D shapes there are.

Irregular shape examples:

These are just a few polygons (fancy words for shapes) pupils will learn about in initial maths lessons. Next, they’ll practice recognizing the properties of these shapes and explaining why they’re irregular.

Irregular Triangle

For example, the right-angled triangle below is irregular because its sides aren’t equal, nor are its angles.

Most triangles are irregular unless they are of the equilateral variety! For example, isosceles triangles only have two sides of equal length, with one difference. And scalene triangles are unique because every side is a different length, making them irregular.

Irregular Pentagon

The irregular pentagon below also has sides and angles which aren’t equal.

Irregular Hexagon

It’s easy to notice that the length of the hexagon’s sides below differs. So is the size in degrees of its angles.

Irregular 3D Shapes

Pupils will not learn about irregular 3D shapes in primary school. But based on their knowledge of irregular polygons and 3D shapes, they can dive deeper and discover what makes a 3D shape irregular.

That’s done through understanding the types of polygons these shapes are made of. For example:

• Cube- a cube is a regular 3D shape because it has identical faces of regular polygons.
• Pyramid with a square base – on the other hand, a pyramid with a square as its base is an irregular 3D shape because it’s made of different polygons.

Is a Star an Irregular Shape?

It depends! This star is a regular pentagon because its sides’ lengths equal its interior angles. Therefore, there is nothing irregular about this shape.

However, you can create stars with different interior angles and side lengths. These would not be regular.

Teaching children about irregular shapes

Children begin to be introduced to shapes, including 2D and 3D, within their first years of school and extend their knowledge and understanding throughout their education. They learn how to:

• Draw 2D and 3D shapes
• Recognize angles as a shape or direction of turn
• Identify horizontal and vertical lines
• To understand polygons, including how many sides they should have
• Compare and classify geometric shapes, including quadrilateral triangles.

Their knowledge then develops by:

• Identifying 3D shapes, including cubes and cuboids.
• Understanding what makes polygons irregular – based on equal sides and edges.
• Compare and classify geometric shapes, their properties, and sizes and find unknown angles in triangles and quadrilaterals.

A food web is a tool that illustrates the feeding relationship among species within a specific habitat. It connects multiple food chains to show the interaction between different organisms in an ecosystem.

When you draw multiple food chains together, you end up with a food web. These represent relationships in ecosystems more accurately and give you a much clearer visualization of how each animal affects others.

What is the Difference Between a Food Chain and a Food Web?

Food chains and webs help us understand how energy transfers through an ecosystem. However, food chains and food webs have some significant differences.

A food chain presents a unique, connected path of energy flow in an ecosystem, whereas a food web explains how food chains overlap. It means a food chain shows a single pathway from the producers to the consumers and how the energy flows in this pathway.

Here is an example of a food chain:

However, many overlapping food chains exist in any ecosystem, and most plants and animals are part of various chains. So in the example above, a shrew isn’t just eaten by foxes, and a fox doesn’t only eat shrews — you can only see part of the whole picture.

Food Web Meaning

The food web definition in biology can be explained as a visual representation of all the food chains connected in a single ecosystem.

An ecosystem contains living things that are all part of multiple food chains. All of these food chains are then connected to create a food web. It helps us to visualize the path of energy and nutrients between different living organisms.

Animals don’t eat the same food every day and like to interact with various prey, so a food chain alone might not be enough to represent the complexity of our ecosystems. It is where food webs come in! By combining multiple food chains, food webs show you how energy travels around a habitat.

Food Web Diagram

Giving students food web examples is essential to demonstrate how a food web diagram works visually.

Within the food web example below, there are several individual food chains.

For example:

• Grass → Rat → Fox → Snake → Hawk
• Grass → Antelope → Cheetah → Hawk
• Tree → Rhino → Lion
• Tree → Giraffe → Lion

You’ll also notice some animals have more than one source of food. It is because it gives them more options for food if one of the others decreases.

The lion, for example, eats both giraffes and rhinos. If one becomes unavailable, it will still have a food source to survive.

The antelope, however, relies on grass for food. Therefore, if the environment changed and the amount of grass was quickly depleted, the antelope would have to adapt and look elsewhere for food.

Every part of the food web is affected by another component. If the population of a predator were to increase, then the prey population would decrease. If the prey population (assuming it’s a herbivore) were to grow, the number of plants and green vegetation would decrease.

What are the different types of food webs?

There are two main types of food webs. These are a grazing food web and a detrital food web.

A grazing food web begins with photosynthetic plants and algae, known as autotrophs. Autotrophs are organisms that can use simple inorganic substances like carbon dioxide in nutritional organic substances.

A detrital food web is based on decomposers. Decomposers are organisms that break down, rot and decay organic material. An example of a decomposer is fungi. Learn more about decomposers below.

What are Trophic Levels?

Trophic levels refer to an organism’s level or feeding position in the food chain or web. There are five primary trophic levels within a food chain, which include the following.

Producers

Plants and algae are called producers. Producers create food and energy using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. This process is called photosynthesis. Producers are at the bottom of the food chain and serve as the foundation for all food chains.

Primary Consumers

The organisms which eat the producers are called primary consumers. The animals in this group are herbivores. Herbivores are animals that get their energy and nutrients from a diet consisting exclusively of producers such as plants and algae. Some examples of primary consumer animals include sheep, cows, deer, horses, and some insects. These organisms occupy the second trophic level in the food chain.

Secondary Consumers

Secondary consumers are bacteria that feed on primary consumers. They are usually carnivores and occupy the third trophic level in the food chain.

Tertiary Consumers

Tertiary consumers are at the very top of the food chain and often do not have predators. They can be carnivores that feed on other carnivores or omnivores — organisms that eat other animals or plants.

Decomposers

Decomposers are bacteria and fungi that break down dead or decaying plant and animal matter into chemical nutrients like carbon and nitrogen that are issued back into the soil, air, and water. Then, it is consumed again by green plants. Examples of decomposers include fungi, bacteria, earthworms, flies, and larvae. They occupy the very bottom trophic level of the food chain.

How is Energy Transferred in a Food Web?

When one organism eats another, energy is transferred in a food web between trophic levels. It triggers the transfer of energy-rich molecules from the prey’s body. While these energy transfers work, they are inefficient, limiting the length of food chains.

When energy enters a trophic level, a portion of it is stored as biomass in organisms’ bodies. This energy is then available to the next trophic level, as only energy stored as biomass can be eaten. Generally speaking, only around 10% of the energy stored of biomass in 1 trophic level per unit of time is stored as biomass in the next trophic level per the same unit of time.

Let’s break that down with an example. Suppose the primary producers of an ecosystem store 50,000 kcal/m squared/year of energy as biomass. This power will be available to the primary consumers, who eat the primary producers. The rule of 10% would suggest that the primary consumers would store only 5,000 kcal/m squared/year of energy in their bodies. The secondary consumers make power available to their predators at a significantly lower rate.

This ineffective pattern of energy transfer limits the length of food chains. As the size is limited, after energy has been passed between several trophic levels, typically 3 to 6, the power is too little to support a population at a higher level.

So, why does energy transferred in a food web deplete?

There are many reasons why energy transferred in a food web exists between trophic levels. However, here are the main reasons:

• At each trophic level, energy is lost as heat as organisms carry out cellular respiration.
• Many molecules that different organisms consume cannot be digested. For this reason, they leave the body as feces instead of being used as energy.
• Not all organisms at a trophic level get eaten by organisms at the next level up. Instead, these animals die before they are eaten, meaning no energy is transferred.
• The feces and dead, uneaten organisms ultimately become food for decomposers. Decomposers then metabolize them and convert their energy to heat through cellular respiration. None of the power disappears; instead, it all ends up as heat in the end.

Competition and Interdependence

All habitats have a limited amount of the resources needed by plants and animals to survive. For this reason, plants and animals are forced to compete with one another from time to time for food, water, space, and mates to survive. Often, this competition between animals leads to fights.

Plants can generate their food through photosynthesis, so they do not have to compete for food. However, plants do engage in some competition for resources like water, space, and mineral salts.

Interdependence

Interdependence is when variations in one organism’s population impact other organisms’ populations.

What is the Purpose of a Food Web?

There are several practical applications for food webs; they can provide insight into how nature works. Here are some of the essential functions of a food web:

• Food webs are constructed to describe species interactions

The primary function of a food web is to describe the feeding relationships amongst species in a community. Within a food web, all of the species can be separated into different groups: basal species (autotrophs, like plants), intermediate species (herbivores and intermediate-level carnivores), and top predators (high-level carnivores). These feeding groups are called trophic levels (detailed above in the ‘What are Trophic Levels?’ section).

Grouping all species into different groups or trophic levels makes food webs simpler and, thus, makes it easier for us to understand the relationships between species.

• Food webs are used to illustrate indirect interactions among species

Simply put, indirect interactions happen when two species do not interact with each other directly but influence a 3rd species. There is a range of different ways that species can influence one another.

For instance, the rocky intertidal zone of the Pacific Northwest coast is home to several species of starfish, including starfish, barnacles, limpets, and mussels. A food web of this community was constructed and studied, and the results showed that the starfish preyed on a wide range of invertebrate species. When starfish were removed from this community on the Pacific Northwest coast led to a reduction in the diversity of prey species as there was increased competition.

Some other functions of food webs include:

• To study bottom-up or top-down control of community structure
• To reveal different patterns of energy transferred in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Partitioning is used to make solving maths problems involving large numbers easier by separating them into smaller units.

What is partitioning? Subtraction, addition, multiplication technique

Partitioning is used to make solving maths problems involving large numbers easier by separating them into smaller units.

For example, 782 can be partitioned into 700 + 80 + 2. It helps kids see the actual value of each digit. So rather than seeing 782 as an intimidating number, they’ll see it as 700, 80, and 2.

Using the partitioning method helps children to understand the values of each digit. It also prepares children to complete trickier calculations and gives them a head-start on the foundation knowledge they need to apply some maths concepts, including the short division method.

It is easiest to partition numbers into units, tens, and hundreds. Children can also understand more about the different place values of each number before adding or subtracting other numbers. The method can help with rounding since they will be more confident in understanding which value is the relevant one to round to.

The partitioning method is also used to solve addition sums. Instead of using adding numbers in a column like this:

700
+82
782

Young children will be taught to partition (separate) each of these numbers into units to understand their value fully. The problem is much more manageable for younger children when they can see the sum presented like this:

700 + 80 + 2 = 782

Another example is a bit more complicated:

365 + 28

To complete this sum using partitioning, children can work it out like this:

300 + 60 + 5 + 20 + 8

The answer that they will eventually reach is 393.

This method is also known as addition by partitioning. It is a beneficial way to begin teaching children how to add more complex numbers together.

Partitioning is the opposite of recombining, where numbers are put back together.

Examples of partitioning

This example shows a simple way to partition a two-digit number. For example, 37 can be partitioned into 30 and 7.

Addition by partitioning

Children should learn to add two-digit and three-digit numbers by partitioning. Partitioning helps a child be confident adding big numbers, for example, 80 + 60, and multiples of 100, 300 + 500.

It can help combat maths anxiety by breaking big numbers into more manageable chunks. Over time, children will become more confident with adding more significant numbers together, and the addition method by partitioning will no longer be needed.

Example:
If the question to solve is 468 + 194, then partitioning can be used.

400 + 100 = 500
60 + 90 =150
8 + 4 = 12
500 + 150 + 12 = 662

The column method can also be used; children in Year 3 must be prepared to encounter this method too.

Partitioning in multiplication

The partitioning method can solve multiplication equations for two-digit numbers multiplied by one digit. It can look intimidating, but partitioning helps break down the process into smaller steps that are easier for children to handle. Once they have got to grips with partitioning, they can move on to more complicated multiplication methods.

Example:
23 x 6 =
20 x 6 = 120
3 x 6 = 18
120 + 18 = 138
So 23 x 6 = 138, which was easily solved using partitioning.

To solve multiplication equations for three-digit numbers multiplied by two-digit numbers.

725 x 24 – Partition 725 into 700 and 20, and 5 and put in a table.
Partition 24 into 20 and 4.

x	700	20	5
20	14000	400	100
4	2800	80	20

So by adding all these numbers in the table together, it is easy to solve the equation of 725 x 24 = 17400.

Partitioning: subtraction

Partitioning can also be used when children begin to learn subtraction.

Here is an example of partitioning in subtraction:

33 – 12

When you partition the sum, you get this:

(30 – 10) + (3 – 2)

When you have worked out the calculations in the brackets, you get this:

20 + 1

Finally, add the two results from the brackets to get the answer of 21.

When partitioning numbers to help with subtraction, you can check that children have got the answer right by working with column subtraction. Eventually, children will also build up to the column subtraction method. They will also have more vital mental maths skills to work out sums alone.

Journalistic writing is a form of non-fiction writing used to report news and factual events.

It can be utilized in newspaper articles, television reports, radio scripts, and news websites.

As written to inform, journalistic writing usually consists of short sentences and paragraphs that quickly reach the article’s point.

Critical features of Journalistic Writing

Headlines

These are bold page headings that summarise the story. They should.

• sum up the story in a few words;
• catch the readers’ attention so that they are encouraged to read on;
• use powerful and emotive language. Headlines are often humorous or rely on wordplay;
• be written in the present tense.

Alliteration in newspaper headlines

Alliteration can be taught to children in primary school to help them understand how language can be used for particular purposes. The repetition of the same sounds characterizes it at the beginning of words. Alliteration in newspaper headlines can grab readers’ attention and make them more memorable. For example:

• ‘Man makes colossal cake’;
• ‘Beagle steals bone’;
• ‘Trouble with turbulent tornado’;
• ‘Students sell secrets.’

Rhyming words in newspaper headlines

Children can also be taught to rhyme words to make their newspaper headlines more catchy. For example:

• ‘No regret without sweat’;
• ‘Aliens to stay in the USA.’

Puns in newspaper headlines

Puns are one of the most common features of newspaper headlines in tabloid newspapers. They are designed to grab the reader’s attention and create humor. For example:

• ‘Local café caused a latte trouble’;
• ‘Rise in pork prices hog the market’;
• ‘Zombie penguins chilled the movie theatre.’

Shock factor in newspaper headlines

Particularly shocking information is often included in newspaper headlines to make the audience want to read the full article. Most of the time, the news article’s content is not as shocking as the headline implies. If the content of the headline has encouraged the audience to start reading the article, it has done its job. For example:

• ‘Man bullied by pet dog’;
• ‘Toenails the length of a house.

Bylines

The byline identifies who wrote the article. A byline should include the following:

• the author’s (reporter’s) name;
• their title or role, such as Sports Reporter or Crime Editor;
• their email address or social media account name (if appropriate).

Photos and captions

Good newspaper reports will always include images related to the story. These images help describe the events and illustrate what the reporter is talking about.

These photos will often include captions describing the picture and its relevance.

Columns

Newspapers also organize paragraphs into columns to help readers follow the story more easily.

Columns are bodies of text placed side by side.

Textual Features

The body of a newspaper report must include the following:

• accurate, factual information relating to the story;
• direct speech and quotations from experts to make the story more reliable;
• expert opinions;
• important dates relating to the story.

Front-loading

Newspapers use a concept called front-loading when drafting reports.

Front-loading ensures that all the critical information is included as soon as possible so that readers do not lose interest.

The first paragraph of a news story is sometimes called the lead and should include the story’s point and the significant facts immediately.

Planning your News Story

What is the most critical information?

Once you have all the information you need to write your story, you will need to sort through it to decide where it should go in your article. Your research and notes should include the following:

• the Five Ws (and H)- who, what, why, when, where, and how;
• quotes from experts;
• quotes from people affected or involved in the story;
• background information on the topic of your account.

Now that you have gathered the facts and quotes, you will need to decide what information you have collected is the most important and least important. While researching, you will not have done this, so organizing your notes into an order of importance is essential to make the writing stage easier. It will also help you start thinking about your article’s structure.

Consider your audience

To decide on essential information, you will need to consider your audience and the sort of news publication you are writing for.

Think about who you are writing your article for and what information you think will interest them the most; this may differ from what interests you the most about the story, so make sure you consider it from their perspective.

It also could help to draw a quick picture of the reader you are writing for or write down a short fact file about them. Consider:

• your audience’s interests;
• their age;
• what they are knowledgeable about;
• what sort of job they may do;
• whether they have a broad vocabulary or not;
• what kind of news stories they would usually click on or choose to read.

Knowing more about your audience will help you understand how to approach your news writing. It will also help you to decide what information is the most important about the news story that you have done lots of research on. Finally, it will help you put yourself in your audience’s shoes to make your article suit their needs.

Consider the publication you are writing for

The publication is simply the organization you are writing for, so you may be writing for a local newspaper, a national newspaper, or a specialist magazine that releases articles about something specific such as the baking scene.

Suppose you are writing about something quite specific such as baking, in a newspaper aimed at the public rather than baking experts. In that case, you will need to include information about baking that helps your reader understand your story.

Whereas, if you are writing a news story about baking in a magazine aimed at people who know a lot about baking, you will not need to include that extra information as you can assume they will understand a lot about the topic already.

What to write

The most important part of news writing is to ensure that you have told your reader the 5Ws and H in the first paragraph. These include who, what, where, when, why, and how. Defining each of these at the beginning of your article will help you make sure that you have included essential information at the start.

That way, your readers could stop reading there and know what the main points of your article are. It is also a great way to ensure that you have included essential facts in your essay before moving on to the finer details and more general information.

When covering the 5 Ws and Hs, try to get the information across in the shortest possible way. Then, you can go into the finer details later on.

The Inverted Pyramid

The inverted pyramid is a structure many news writers follow when writing news reports and articles. It helps them organize the information from their research while ensuring that they include the most critical information first. It is also a great way to help you manage your research notes in order.

The inverted pyramid news writing structure includes:

• The most important information: The start of your news article should consist of the most newsworthy information, including the 5 Ws and Hs; this is the most valuable part of your news article because your audience should be able to stop reading after this point and know what you are reporting on.
• Details about the story: This section should add more information about what happened and will build on what the reader has learned from the first section. This part of your news article should be organized into an order of importance, so include essential extra details first, and so on.
• Background information: This part of your article should provide extra information about the topic you are writing about. For example, if your essay was on how an orchid managed to grow to the size of a house, you may add some background information about orchid plants or growing indoor plants. This section is also an excellent place to add the finer details of your story that could quickly be taken out without disrupting the meaning of the text.

Quotations

Quotations can be added to your news story from experts on the topic, witnesses to the event or incident, or the opinions of people involved. Quotations have several benefits in news writing, including:

• Credibility: they can make your news story more believable. By quoting an expert you are writing about, your points are supported by somebody who knows a lot about the area. For example, you could include a quotation from a university professor, a vet, or a gardener, depending on the topic you are writing about. Getting the opinion of somebody who was at the incident or event will make your article more believable as it is likely that you, as the reporter, were not present at the time and are gathering information afterward;
• Entertainment: quotations also make your writing more interesting for your reader. You could include the opinions of witnesses or residents’ views on the event or incident. They help to make the article more personal and relatable to your audience.

You will need to decide what quote is appropriate for your topic. For example, if you are writing about how a team won a football match, you could get a quote from the football team’s manager, their coach, a football pundit, a member of the losing team, and a fan who was at the game.

Tips for including quotations:

• If the quote you have found is too long, use brackets and ellipsis, ‘(…)’, to show that you have cut out part of it.
• Keep your quotes short; this will help to maintain the flow of your article and enhance the points you are making rather than breaking them up.
• Include a range of quotes. Make sure you balance out the information from experts on the topic and people at the event or incident. It will help your readers understand the case more in-depth while getting a genuine feel for what happened.
• Quotes from eyewitnesses are essential. Please include information about how they felt, what it was like, and how they felt after the event or incident.
• Introduce your quote with ‘said’ so that you can stay neutral.

What is the format of a newspaper article?

News articles are most commonly written in the ‘inverted pyramid’ structure. The inverted pyramid format means that the most important, newsworthy information goes at the start of the article. Then, as the report continues, the news gets less and less critical of the story’s reporting. The supporting information follows the who, what, when, why, where, and how come first. News writing aims to relay information efficiently and concisely, which is why the inverted pyramid technique is used.

How do you write a short newspaper article?

1. Research the topic. Make sure you know the who, what, why, when, where, and how. Find any supporting or surrounding information on your case that may be interesting or useful to your audience.
2. Organize your research. Go through your research findings and organize them into three categories. The first category is for essential information, the second is for helpful information, and the third is for exciting information that is not vital.
3. Plan your article. Outline your article content in the inverted pyramid structure. Briefly note which information you will include in your lead, supporting, and closing paragraphs.
4. Proofread your article and check your facts. Then, review the newspaper structure guide to ensure you have included all relevant information. When proofreading your essay, remove any information that is not useful for your audience to know about the report.

What are the critical parts of a newspaper article?

Here we shall cover the key elements of a newspaper article that are essential to news writing.

1. Headline. Headlines should grab the reader’s attention through a short, snappy sentence that portrays what the article will be about.
2. Byline. Bylines details the writer’s name, journalistic specialism (e.g., Sports Editor), a link to their other journalistic pieces, and an optional link to their professional social media channel.
3. Lead. Here the who, what, when, why, where, and how should be covered.
4. Body. Go into more detail about the event or incident in around three paragraphs, providing supporting information about the topic.
5. Tail. Round off the piece with links to extra information about the topic or a final quote from a source.

What are the types of news writing?

Investigative, news, reviews, columns, and feature writing.

While getting your learners to write news articles is a great way to enhance their creative skills and understanding of the world, you could challenge them to learn about other types of news writing. Below we shall explore the different kinds of journalism, including investigative, news, reviews, columns, and feature writing.

Investigative

Investigative journalism involves finding information about topics that are particularly hard to uncover. Investigative journalists will often work to gain facts and information from sources that are reluctant to share information. They may also try to disclose information about topics the public does not know much about or is not supposed to know about. Finally, an investigative journalist is driven to find out the truth about issues that are important for people to know, such as injustice, crime, or corruption.

News

It is at the core of news writing. A news story relays facts about an event or incident. The information is presented through a catchy headline, a lead, the main body, and a tail. It will often follow the ‘who, what, why, when, where, and how structure at the beginning of the article. A news story aims to relay information about an event or incident straightforwardly and accurately. Lots of news organizations claim to release unbiased details in their news articles.

Reviews

Journalists who write reviews are responsible for accurately relaying information about what they are reviewing and giving their opinion. The review should be well-informed through lots of research and experience. Reviews have the purpose of being helpful to the reader as well as entertaining. All subjects, such as restaurants, films, plays, performances, or even a well-being experience, can be reviewed.

Columns

Column writing involves an entertaining opinion piece on a particular topic. It is shaped by the journalist’s personality and personal writing style, and they are often revered for their witty comments and exciting viewpoints. Columns will usually be written comedically to entertain the reader or revisit a particular specialism each week to discuss their opinions and experiences.

Feature Writing

Feature pieces are extended news articles that explore a particular topic in depth. The journalist will incorporate lots of research into the piece and provide a unique angle on a specific circumstance, issue, event, or individual.

What are the rules of news writing?

Depending on the piece’s context, there will be different principles. However, below we shall explore some possible guidelines for news writing.

• Know the angle. Being clear on what the story is reporting on is essential. By completing detailed research on the story and the topic, journalists can carve a pitch for the piece. For example, if a journalist chooses to report on a football game, they need to be clear about whether they are focussing on the performance of one of the teams, the new mascot, or the tactics that failed for the losing team, for example.
• Important information comes first. Following the inverted pyramid structure mentioned before, you will cover the who, what, when, where, how, and why in the first part of the lead paragraph; this comes after the byline and will allow readers to know what happened without having to read further down.
• Stay objective. Unless a journalist writes an opinion piece, good practice will mean they will try to talk about the events without inserting any unnecessary bias. Rather than expressing their opinions, journalists will try to report on the facts that will help inform the reader about what happened. To sound objective, journalists will also avoid using the first person.
• Please keep it simple. So that the information can be portrayed in an efficient, concise way, the language used is usually engaging and punchy; this means choosing a more straightforward language and keeping sentences below around 25 words long. It also means that journalists avoid using technical language that the audience won’t understand unless they write for a specialist readership.
• Use of acronyms. Journalists may be familiar with acronyms that their readers are not, so it is essential to include what the acronym stands for in brackets the first time it is used. That way, readers can follow the rest of the article quickly, and the journalist can use just the acronym throughout the rest of the piece.
• Proofread. Journalists will check their work for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. They also contain that the article portrays what they want to communicate and that the most important information comes first. They will also ensure that they have not repeated any information unnecessarily, used plain English as much as possible and that all of their facts and statistics are correct.

What does a newspaper article look like?

Newspaper articles vary between publications, but some standard features are often included in many pieces. For example, one of the essential features of a newspaper article is the headline; this should be at the top of the page, functioning to catch the reader’s attention while summarising the article’s main point. In addition, features such as puns, alliteration, humor, and homophones can be used.

Underneath the headline, there should be a byline in a much smaller font detailing the journalist’s name and their journalistic specialism. The article’s date should also be below the headline and the central theme in around the same size font.

Below this, the article should be separated into paragraphs and columns. It is common across most newspaper publications as it makes the text easier to read quickly and efficiently. Throughout the article, quotes may be featured in more extensive writing that displays vital points from the text or opinions about what is being reported.

The text should also include relevant images to the story and captions underneath to help readers better understand its context.

Newspaper ideas

Newswriting is a great way to help children expand their creative skills and vocabulary, understand the conventions of a new genre, and learn about various topics. Below are some newspaper ideas to help children decide what to write their newspaper articles about.

The life of a pupil at ‘x’ school.

Your pupils could write about the following:

• school trips;
• their favorite lesson;
• the food from the school canteen;
• changes to the school’s buildings;
• sporting events and results;
• themed days;
• new or existing lunchtime and after-school clubs.

History of the school

Your learners could practice investigative skills and learn about the school’s history. Many schools have been running for a long time and may even have been the workplace of staff members for many years. They could look into what sort of school it was when it was first established, what the building was once used for, how many pupils it started with, long-standing staff members’ opinions on how the school has changed, and pictures of the school throughout the years.

Local news

There may be some information on local news sites or from the local council to give your learners inspiration for a news story. For example, it may be that a new playground is being built, a new housing estate or a new statue is being placed in the town center.

Top Tips for News Writing

1. Read the news regularly.

Reading the news will help you to get familiar with the structure, content, and language used by news writers.

2. Keep it simple.

To get your news article to the best possible standard, go through your essay and cut out any information or words that are not needed. You do not necessarily need to rewrite the whole thing repeatedly, but reading through it a few times is helpful so you can refine it.

Keep your language choices simple (but consider your audience’s knowledge). Try not to include any specialist language that your readers may not be able to understand. Make sure you keep your sentences relatively short so that your article flows.

3. Stick to the facts.

By sticking to the facts in your news writing, you will become a trustworthy source of information to your audience. If you include opinions or descriptions that could be easily disagreed with, you should have them as quotations or reported references.

4. Stay balanced.

Try to cover all sides of the story and opinions from people with different views about the event or incident.

5. Use the third person.

The third person will help you to stay neutral. Your readers do not know you personally, so using first or second person would be inappropriate.

6. Proofread your news article.

Read your article a few times once you have finished writing it to ensure that it makes sense and that there are no spelling, punctuation, or grammar errors. Make sure that you have not included information that does not need to be there, and make sure that you have used language that your audience will understand throughout

What are frogs?

Frogs are amphibians, meaning they can live on land and in water. They have striking characteristics, like protruding eyes and webbed feet, and their skin is smooth and moist. Most of them live in water, but some frog species live in trees or burrow into the ground.

Frogs have solid back legs designed to help them leap and swim. A frog’s diet also varies depending on its species. Some eat insects and other worms, while others prey on other frogs, small rodents, and reptiles.

Frogs have a fascinating life cycle. First, female frogs lay fertilized eggs, which then hatch into frogspawn. Then, between 6 and 21 days later, the frogspawn hatches into tadpoles. Tadpoles have no limbs, only tails to help them swim. It takes about 6 to 9 weeks for tadpoles to grow fully, though this varies between species. During this time, they swim, eat, and grow.

After about 12 weeks, the tadpole grows its legs and arms. Its body gets longer, and its head gets more extensive. It starts to be able to breathe underwater too. At this point, it also still has a tail.

Adult frogs lose their tails. It takes between 12 and 16 weeks for the frog to go from egg to full-grown adult.

Are frogs reptiles?

No. A reptile is not the same as an amphibian, which frogs are. Frogs may have similarities to snakes, such as their stretchy, hairless skin, but they have very different needs. A frog is classed as an amphibian and not a reptile because it needs a habitat with plenty of water, unlike reptiles living in arid conditions.

Top 15 Frog Facts for Kids:

1. Frogs have ears. Male frogs have more prominent ears than females because they are just behind their eyes.
2. Frogs ‘drink’ through their skin.
3. Frogs are cold-blooded – they hibernate in winter.
4. There isn’t a biological difference between frogs and toads. However, toads are very warty frogs.
5. There are around 7,300 species of frog.
6. Over a third of frog species are considered endangered.
7. Frogs are an incredibly ancient species. Recent evidence suggests that the species is over 265 million years old and originates from the Permian period. There are fossils of complete frogs, too, which show that – physically – they haven’t changed much in this time!
8. Some adult frogs are poisonous, but their primary form of defense from predators is camouflage.
9. Flying frogs can glide for 12 to 15 meters and have highly effective webbed feet.
10. Female frogs can lay thousands of eggs at a time.
11. Frogs have powerful leg muscles! It makes them excellent jumpers. Some bullfrogs, which average 18 cm long, can leap over 2 meters – that’s ten times their length!
12. The giant frog in the world is the goliath frog which is 30 cm long!
13. Frogs produce mucus from their skin to stay moist when they’re above the water. It helps them to breathe through their skin too.
14. Frogs are known as environmental bellwethers (or indicators). Because they are so sensitive to environmental changes, they are the first to be affected and warn other species (including us) of ecological problems.
15. Research suggests frogs have adapted to inhabit everywhere, from subarctic regions to the humid heat of tropical rainforests.

More Froggy Facts

There are over 7,300 species of frogs. They make up most of the amphibian population on the planet! They’re tailless, webbed-footed short-bodied animals that live both in water and on land. Because of the conditions they need to survive, habitats close to water or wetlands are ideal for frogs.

Where do frogs live?

There are many kinds of frogs, and frog habitats range from burrows underground to the tops of tropical trees and swampy lakes.

The only places they struggle to live in are freezing environments in the polar regions – although some frogs do live in the Arctic Circle. They don’t inhabit some of the world’s islands either because the salty sea water would dehydrate them, and frogspawn can’t survive in salt water. However, they can live in deserts and montane forests above 4,500 meters.

How to Create Your Frog Habitat

1. Make sure they have access to water – a small, clean pond with plants growing in and around it is excellent. If you don’t have a pond, leave lots of leaf litter, stones, and logs around one area of your garden. Tall plants and grasses will help frogs camouflage and stay calm. Frogs love roaming; your garden could become a holiday retreat for your local frogs.

   Garden ponds are helping to make up for a massive loss of wetlands and ponds in places like the UK.

   Ensure your pond has gently sloping sides or rocks leading out of the bond so frogs can move quickly between land and water.

2. Ensure there are lots of twigs, branches, rocks, and leaves for the frog to camouflage against. Overturned garden pots are also welcome additions!
3. A shady or semi-shady spot is preferred, as this can help mosses and other small native plants to grow. The more plants around, the more insects for frogs to eat – so more frogs!

How do frogs protect themselves?

Many frogs rely on camouflage to prevent predators from spotting them. Species like the common frog live in grassy, muddy banks around ponds and lakes across Europe and Asia. They are often sprinkled with brown and green-brown splodges, which helps them to hide under grasses, mud, and leaves.

What are some characteristics of frogs?

• Frog tongues are super soft but made of powerful muscles. Frogs can snap up their prey five times faster than you can blink. Their softness means they can wrap tightly around their prey.
• As the frog targets a prey animal, they open its jaw, and the extender muscle propels the tongue outwards at a rate of 4 meters per second! Then, the retractor muscle works like a bungee, bringing the tongue back into the frog’s mouth with its tasty food.
• To swallow, frogs suck in their eyes. It helps push food down their throats!
• The real secret is in their super-sticky spit. Frog saliva is a special kind of substance known as a non-Newtonian fluid. It means it can behave both as a liquid and a solid. So as the frog pulls their prey in with their tongue, the saliva hardens, ensuring its prey can’t escape.

Do frogs have teeth?

Some frogs do have teeth, but not all. Again, it depends on the species of frog. Most common species have tiny frog teeth on their upper jaw, usually less than a millimeter long.

One frog, the Gastrotheca guentheri, is the only frog out of more than 7,000 species to have ‘true teeth’ in its upper and lower jaws!

Are frogs endangered?

Some frogs are listed as endangered due to habitat loss and disturbance. It means that their species is at risk of dying out.

Many poison frog species are endangered due to deforestation and climate change affecting their rainforest home and the broader environment.  One of the biggest threats facing frogs is fungus. It only affects frogs, but it’s spread worldwide – causing some frogs to become endangered and even extinct.

What is the difference between a frog and a toad?

All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Toad is just the common name for certain types of frogs. People usually use the name toad to describe frogs that have:

• drier, leathery skin;
• short, stocky legs;
• large bumps over glands on their back. These specialized glands release a substance to ward off predators!

How do tadpoles turn into frogs?

Some animals transform as they grow over time. This process of change – from egg to adult – is called metamorphosis. For example, amphibians and insects go through metamorphosis.

For some frogs, transforming from a tadpole into the adult frog form takes two months – for others, this process takes three years!

During their metamorphosis, their tail is reabsorbed into their body. As a result, their mouth becomes wider; their legs and arms spring out from their bodies. Amazingly, they develop lungs necessary for their life on land.

Fascinating Frogs

• Flying frogs have extra webbing between their fingers and toes. They leap from trees – expanding their webbing – and can glide up to 15 meters.
• Suriname toads- female Suriname toads – have particular skin on their backs, like bubble wrap. They protect their young by carrying their eggs – and tadpoles – on their backs in tiny bubble backpacks. It means the baby frogs hatch out of their mother’s backs!
• Sedge frogs live in trees. The African climbing frog, for example, has super-sticky toe disks which stick to the bark of trees.
• Glass frogs are a family of frogs with near-transparent (see-through) skin on their bellies for which they’re named. It means you can see glass frogs’ intestines, hearts, and livers! They are found in the trees of Central and South American coastal forests.
• Poison frogs are tiny rainforest dwellers. They are brightly colored (often with unique patterns) to warn predators of their toxicity.
• Wood frogs are a species of frog that can withstand a yearly freeze! In addition, they can withstand being frozen throughout winter. It is because their blood contains a kind of ‘antifreeze’ like liquid that helps them thaw when it’s springtime.

A Closer Look: Red-Eyed Tree Frogs

Red-eyed tree frogs are found in the tropical lowlands of Central and South America. They are nocturnal carnivores: they sleep underneath leaves during the day and hunt insects by night.

They are famous worldwide for their bright green color and startling red eyes. Their big eyes are covered by three eyelids which camouflage their eyes while they sleep, making them look like leaves. They flash shades of blue when they’re disturbed.

Red-eyed tree frogs are ambush predators. They use the cover of their leafy, shadowy habitat to hide in wait for unsuspecting insects – before catching them with their impressive long, sticky tongue.

Red-eyed tree frogs are a fantastic indicator species: researchers will use the number of red-eyed tree frogs in a rainforest section to see how healthy the ecosystem is.

A Closer Look: Poison Dart Frogs

Like tiny jewels hopping around the forest floor, poison frogs are some of the most brightly colored animals on Earth.

They live in wet, tropical forests in Central and South America. Some aren’t very poisonous; most are no bigger than a paper clip – and the enormous poison frogs are only about two inches long. Each species makes unique calls to communicate with one another in the vast forests in which these tiny creatures live. There are over 200 species of small, colorful poison frogs.

This family of frogs may be commonly known as poison dart frogs, but there are only around three species whose poison was and is used by indigenous people of the Americas to lace their arrow tips before hunting. This reported list includes the golden poison frog, the most toxic of all frogs.

Many poison dart frogs carry their eggs and tadpoles on their backs, protecting them and keeping them safe from predators. Males are particularly doting caregivers. Male poison frogs take on much of the parenting duties during this vulnerable stage in the life cycle of a frog. Females will often lay unfertilized eggs for their tadpoles to eat.

Quick Golden Poison Frog Facts

• Golden poison frogs are small but mighty. Although averaging an inch and a half in length, a single adult frog has enough venom to kill around ten adult human men – in theory.
• They aren’t a threat to any mammals: they enjoy a diet of main ants but are not fussy: they will eat crickets, beetles, and termites. Adults can eat insects much more significantly than their size.
• Research suggests that their poison comes from their diet because they can accumulate certain chemicals in their bodies that are turned into lethal poison.
• It’s rare to stumble upon them. Instead, they are found only within a small patch of rainforest in Colombia, near the Pacific coast.

A denominator is the bottom number in a fraction. It shows the equal number of parts something is divided into. For example, four would be the denominator if we had the fraction 3/4. We would call the three the numerator. The numerator is how many equal parts there are, and the denominator is how many parts the whole can be divided.

Find the Denominator: Numerators and Denominators

The denominator of a fraction shows you how many parts are equal to a whole. At the same time, the fraction’s numerator tells you how many of those equal parts the fraction contains. Simply put, the denominator is the number at the bottom of the fraction, and the numerator is the number on top.

Find the Denominator: Common Denominators

The first step in adding or subtracting fractions is always to make sure your denominators are the same. It means you must find the common denominator. Then, once you have found the common denominator, you can add together or subtract the numerators.

Equations where the denominators are the same, are very straightforward, as you don’t have to find the denominator they share in common. The common denominator is already given. For example:

1/4 + 2/4 = 3/4

In the case of this equation, 4 is the common denominator. Therefore, you can put four at the bottom of the fraction and add the numerators together, giving you 3/4.

This rule is the same for subtracting fractions. For example:

5/7 – 2/7 = 3/7

In this equation, 7 is the common denominator. Therefore, you can put seven at the bottom of the fraction and subtract the numerators. Giving you 3/7.

Things get much more tricky when the denominators in an equation are different. In this instance, you have to find the denominator in common before you start trying to solve the equation.

To find the denominator in common for two fractions, multiply the numerator and denominator of each fraction by the denominator of the other. For example, if you are trying to find the common denominator of 1/4 and 1/5, multiply both the numerator and denominator of 1/4 by 5 (the denominator of 1/5). Then, multiply the numerator and denominator of 1/5 by 4 (which is the denominator of 1/4). This equation will look like this:

(1 × 5) / (4 × 5) = 5/20

(1 × 4) / (5 × 4) = 4/20

Now you’ve got two new fractions with the same denominator that can be easily added or subtracted!

Find the Denominator: How to find the unknown denominator

First, when the numerator or denominator is strange in a fraction, you must cross-multiply the numerators and denominators. To cross-multiply, you must multiply each numerator by the denominator in the opposite fraction. Resulting in a brand-new equation for you to work with that is not a fraction.

So, how do you use cross multiplication to find the denominator when it is unknown? In algebraic equations, an unknown denominator will be represented by an ‘x.’

You can solve X (i.e., find the unknown denominator) by carrying out these super easy steps:

Let’s take the equation x/3 = 3/4 as an example.

Step 1: Cross Multiply the Fraction

The first step is to cross-multiply the fractions, as explained above. It will create a new equation that is much easier to solve.

For example:

(4 × x) = (3 × 3), this means that 4x = 9

Step Two: Solve the Equation

After cross-multiplying your fractions, you must solve the equation you created. The first step is to get x on its own. You do this by dividing both sides of the equation by the number in front of the x.

For example:

4x = 9

4x ÷ 4 = x

9 ÷ 4 = 9/4

x = 9/4

Step Three: Reduce the Fraction

The last of the three steps is to reduce the fraction. To do this, you must first find the most common factor of the numerator and denominator. Then, once you have done this, divide the numerator and denominator by the common factor.

If the fraction’s numerator is greater than 1, it is a good idea to turn it into a mixed number. To do this, you have to divide the numerator by the denominator. It will leave you with a whole number and a fraction, where the remainder will be the numerator, and the original denominator is the denominator.

For example:

9 ÷ 4 cannot be simplified into a mixed number.

It leaves us with 2 and a remainder of 1. As the original denominator in the fraction was 4, we are left with the following:

2 1/4

Multiplying Mixed Fractions by Mixed Fractions

There are simple steps to take when multiplying mixed fractions (fractions featuring whole numbers).

Let’s take the equation 2 1/4 × 3 1/2 as an example.

Step 1: Convert everything into improper fractions

The first step in multiplying mixed fractions is eliminating the whole numbers and turning everything into improper fractions. To change one of the mixed fractions, multiply the denominator by the actual number. Then, after you have done this, add the numerator. This number then goes to the top of the fraction, and the denominator remains the same.

For example:

2 1/4 × 3 1/2 becomes (2 × 4 = 8 + 1)/4 = 9/4 × 3 1/2

9/4 x (3 × 2 = 6 + 1)/2 = 9/4 × 7/2

Step 2: Multiply the numerators of the improper fractions

Now that we have 2 improper fractions to work with, we can begin the next step. It is to multiply the numerators of the improper fractions.

For example:

The numerators of our fractions are 9 and 7.

9 × 7 = 63

Step 3: Multiply the denominators of the improper fractions

Now we’ve sorted the numerators, we have to deal with the denominators. The next step in this process is multiplying the denominators by one another.

For example:

The denominators of our fractions are 4 and 2.

4 × 2 = 8

It makes our new fraction 63/8

Step 4: Turn the answer into a mixed fraction

Suppose the numerator of the new fraction is larger than the denominator. In that case, we can turn it into a mixed number by seeing how many times the denominator will go into the numerator. What is left over becomes the remainder.

For example:

7 7/8

A number sentence is an array of numbers and symbols. Also referred to as a “sum” or “problem,” number sentences are a familiar way of arranging questions in K-5 math.

Kids must learn this early, as it is how most of the work in their math lessons will look.

“Number sentence” is the term used in K-5-level math teaching in countries such as the U.S., Canada, the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia.

Here are some examples of number sentences:

Addition number sentence: 7 + 5 = 12

Subtraction number sentence: 44 – 10 = 34

Multiplication number sentence: 5 x 4 = 20

Division number sentence: 35 ÷ 7 = 5

When are number sentences introduced?

Typically, children will start learning to write and solve number sentences in first grade. They will likely begin by using objects such as counters and small toys to help them understand the value of numbers.

Children also need to be able to turn word problems into number sentences to understand the question. For example:

Steve has $10 and spends $4.50 on his lunch. How much does he have left?

The number sentence is 10 – 4.50 = 5.50

So a child can work out that Steve has $5.50 left using a number sentence.

They are essential for a child to learn early on to develop their math skills, as this is what most of the math problems they’ll be solving will look like.

Number sentences for kids

Here are ten differentiated number sentences for your children to try out. They start friendly and accessible but get harder and harder as you go on. How many can your class solve?

1. 2 + ? = 4
2. 3 – 2 = ?
3. 4 + 1 = ?
4. 6 – ? = 2
5. 8 + 3 = ?
6. 10 – ? = 3
7. 15 + 5 = ?
8. 16 -? = 8
9. 18- 9 = ?
10. 25 + 12 = ?

A food chain is a sequence describing how different animals eat each other, showing the order in which living things depend on each other for food. A food chain is a diagram showing how energy is transferred between different organisms in an ecosystem, starting with a plant and ending with an animal. Organisms include both plants and animals.

Eating food is how we get our energy. Without consuming calories and nutrition, we could not survive. The food chain shows how living things get their food. For example, some animals will only feed on plants, while others will eat other animals.

The food chain has four different categories of organisms: producers, consumers, prey, and predators.

Top Ten Food Chain Facts

1. Food chains usually start with producers. Producers are organisms that make their food. Examples of producers include plants, phytoplankton, and plant-like organisms such as algae. Other organisms eat these producers, which starts the food chain.
2. Some producers, such as plants, create their food using energy they absorb from the sun. This process is called photosynthesis. Other producers make their food using chemical energy, but most producers depend on sunlight for their food.
3. The energy passed along a food chain from one organism eating another is generated by producers, as they can transform inorganic compounds into organic compounds, the foundation for all life on Earth.
4. Organisms that eat producers are referred to as consumers. There are three consumer types: herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. For example, herbivores only eat plants, carnivores only eat animals, and omnivores can eat plants and animals. In addition, some animals hunt live prey to eat, and others exclusively eat dead animals; these are called scavengers.
5. Examples of carnivores include lions, tigers, sharks, and eagles. Examples of herbivores include cows, sheep, rabbits, zebras, antelope, and giraffes. Examples of omnivores include humans, bears, pigs, and dogs. Finally, examples of scavengers include raccoons, hyenas, and vultures.
6. Another type of organism plays a vital role in the food chain. These are decomposers that break down decaying organic matter to create soil. Plants absorb nutrients from the ground, which begins the process again, so many ecosystems would not exist without decomposers. There are over 100,000 types of decomposers, including bacteria, fungi, and worms.
7. Food chains can be long or short, depending on the environment in which they exist. If a food chain is too long, the energy passed to the end of the chain will be of less value to the animal, as some energy is lost at each stage of the food chain.
8. The concept of the food chain was first suggested by a scientist and philosopher called Al-Jahiz in the 10th century. Charles Elton popularised his ideas in a book he published in 1927, which also suggested the idea of the food web. A food web visualizes the links between all the food chains in a particular area.
9. Some of the most unusual food chains in the world are the diet of the Brazilian maned wolf, which feed primarily on plants and fruit, and the Blue Whale. The blue whale is the largest animal in the world, yet it feeds exclusively on krill, a tiny sea creature similar to a small shrimp.
10. Humans are positioned at the end of the food chain, as humans eat plants and animals and have no natural predators.

What is a Primary Consumer in a Food Chain?

Primary consumers are organisms that eat the producers. Producers are at the top of the food chain. These are always plants, like grass. Plants get energy from the sun by making their food through photosynthesis. Primary consumers are herbivores, which means that they are creatures that eat only plants.

Primary consumers tend to be smaller, and there are many of them. There are more primary consumers than prey. Energy is lost through food at each level of the food chain. About 50% of the energy in food is lost at each level when an organism is eaten, so it is less efficient to be prey or predator in the food chain. There is plenty of food to go around for primary consumers due to many producers and the fact that there are more producers than consumers.

Take a look at the primary consumer examples below.

Primary Consumer Examples

Here are some examples of primary consumers:

• Grasshoppers – eat grass and are eaten by shrews. Owls then eat the shrews.

• Mosquitoes – eat algae in ponds and are eaten by dragonflies. Fish eat the dragonflies, and then raccoons eat the fish.
• Zooplankton – they eat phytoplankton in the ocean. Phytoplankton is microscopic plants that live in the water. Zooplankton is then eaten by fish, which seals and sharks eat.

What are the prey and the predator in a food chain?

Above the producer is the consumer, and above the consumer is the prey, followed by the predator. So, first, the prey eats the consumer, then the predator eats the prey.

Prey can be herbivores (creatures that eat only plants) or carnivores (creatures that mainly eat meat), or omnivores (animals that eat both plants and meats). Depending on the food chain, any of these might be the last ones on the top. The animal at the top of the food chain is a predator who eats meat as a carnivore or an omnivore. The predator at the very top of the food chain that nothing else eats is called an apex predator.

An apex predator has no natural predators. Other animals may sometimes eat the young and old of these species, but they usually die due to disease, hunger, or aging. They also have competition with humans because humans tend to get rid of the top predators so that they can be the only ones with access to the prey. Sometimes the habitats of apex predators are destroyed by humans, too, such as through deforestation. You can read more about different types of habitat loss here.

Energy Transfer in the Food Chain

While a food chain is made up of many different forms of life, from trees and plants to insects, mammals, and fish, the energy that travels through the food chain is called energy transfer in the food chain. Energy is first taken in by the ‘producer,’ which is often trees or plants, who gather their energy from water and sunlight. Then, this same energy is passed through each link in the food chain when animals eat or consume something in the part of the chain before themselves. This energy transfer continues until the end of the food chain.

Energy Transfer In Action

Primary consumers like the Giant African Land Snail (Achatina Fulica) will eat primary producers like leaves and plants. The Land Snail will then take energy from the plants it eats; in time, this primary producer may be eaten by a secondary consumer such as a bird or mammal, and the flow of energy will continue.

Energy Loss

Roughly 90% of the available energy is lost during energy transfer in the food chain. Only 10% of available energy is transferred up to the next level. The rest of the energy is passed out of the food chain in several different ways:

• It is used as heat energy
• It is used for life processes (movement)
• Animal and plant waste

Since energy is lost as energy transfer in the food chain takes place. There is a natural limit to the number of links and levels in an ecosystem. It also means that those animals higher in the chain must take in more food and energy to stay healthy.

Food Chain Examples

There are many examples of food chains from different ecosystems. Here is an example of a food chain where the grass is the producer, rabbits are the primary consumer, foxes are the prey, and bears are the predators.

Another example of a food chain is:

• Plant (producer) → Caterpillar (primary consumer) → Mouse (prey) → Wolf (predator)

In the above example, the plant is at the bottom of the food chain as the producer. The caterpillar consumes the plant. The mouse then eats the caterpillar before the mouse finally becomes the prey of the predator: the wolf.

An obtuse angle is an angle that measures more than 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees.

It’s unclear why these angles take that name, as the word ‘obtuse’ can be defined as ‘stupid.’ But obtuse could also mean dull and blunt, with the latter defined as ‘not sharp.’ So as obtuse angles aren’t sharp, this could be one reason they’re called such.

It’s important to remember what they’re called and what they look like.

How to Measure an Obtuse Angle

You can measure an obtuse angle using a protractor. It is a handy tool for children to use in maths lessons.

How to Utilize a Protractor to Measure Angles

1. Align the angle’s vertex with the cross on the bottom of the protractor.
2. Align the line from the vertex with the 0 points on the protractor.
3. See where the other line of the angle lines up with the numbers on the protractor.

What is an obtuse triangle?

An obtuse triangle is a triangle where one of the angles is obtuse. It is not a wholly obtuse triangle; a triangle with only obtuse angles would not be a triangle. Only a single angle in a triangle can be obtuse.

Different Types Of Angles

When learning about different angles, obtuse is just one of the terms pupils will learn to use. They’ll also practice identifying other types of angles.

Here’s a summary of these critical terms and visual representations of what these angles look like.

Acute

Acute angles are minor than 90°.

Right (90°)

Right angles are always measured at 90°.

Straight

Straight angles are always 180°.

Reflex

A reflex angle is the ‘outside’ of an angle.

Measured at more than 180° but less than 360°.

Full

A whole angle is always measured at 360°.

Egg Cell

An egg cell is a cell found in female animals which is essential for producing offspring. It provides half of the genetic information needed to make another of the species and needs to be fertilized by a male sex cell to produce offspring.

This illustration shows the different parts of the egg cell:

What is the job of the egg cell?

Egg cells are the female sex cells – also known as gametes. It’s the job of the female egg cell to connect with the male sperm cell to become fertilized and produce offspring.

In the illustration below, you can see how the sperm must connect with the egg cell to

What is the name of egg cells?

Egg cells can be referred to as ‘ova’ or ‘ovum’ when talking about one egg cell.

They are also known as female gametes. The male gamete is called the sperm.

Where is the egg cell found?

Human egg cells are stored in the ovaries, connected by the fallopian tubes to the uterus. It is believed that when a woman is born, she stores every egg she will release in her lifetime. When an egg cell is released by one of the ovaries, it travels along the fallopian tube and into the uterus.

What is an egg cell made of?

Normal body cells contain all the genetic information they need, but sperm and egg cells contain only half each; this means that children’s genetic information is made up of 50% from each parent. This information is included in the nucleus.

What are egg cell adaptations?

Egg cells adapt in specific ways to help increase the chance of becoming fertilized and to support the development of an embryo (the early stage of growth once the egg is fertilized).

Egg cells adapt by:

• changing the cell membrane through chemical reaction once it has been fertilized so that no more sperm can enter the egg;
• providing nutrients in the cytoplasm which support the embryo as it develops;
• Being large makes it more likely that the sperm will fertilize them so that there is more space for storing nutrients inside the cell.

What happens to egg cells during the menstrual cycle?

On days 6 – 13 of the menstrual cycle, the lining of the uterus thickens to be ready to receive an egg. The egg will start to ripen on day 12.

On day 14, the ripe egg is released from an ovary; this is called ovulation. You can see this happening in the diagram below – the egg cell is colored yellow.

Between days 15 – 28, if the egg cell isn’t fertilized, the lining of the uterus will stop developing and be shed from the body in a period.