Life's Web: Classifying and Connecting Living Systems
A complete 10-week Year 7 Science unit on classification and ecosystems, mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9 and assessed by a student-designed investigation. Every lesson below comes with the classroom files to teach it — 120 of them, all free to download.
How this was made.The plan is the unedited output of Lesson Creator's Unit Planner from a short brief — Year 7, Science, Classification and Ecosystems, 10 weeks, investigation assessment — seeded with the 13 Australian Curriculum v9 descriptors for this part of the course. It took 3 minutes 36 seconds. Every file was then generated lesson by lesson by the same tools any teacher gets. Nothing has been rewritten by hand.
The question the unit answers
How do scientists organise the diversity of life, and what happens when connections in ecosystems are disrupted?
Students explore how classification systems help us understand biodiversity, then investigate the flow of matter and energy through ecosystems. They develop scientific inquiry skills progressively, culminating in a student-planned investigation that examines classification or ecosystem relationships through hands-on experimentation.
Assessment: a student-designed investigation
Science Inquiry is 8 of Year 7's 18 descriptors, so the unit is built towards a student-planned investigation written up as a formal report rather than a test. The skills are laid in one at a time: investigable questions in Week 4, variables and fair testing in Week 6, planning the investigation in Week 7, collecting data in Week 8, then representing, analysing and evaluating it in Week 9 before the report is written in Week 10. Fieldwork in Weeks 2 and 3 and a germination practical in Week 6 give students the method practice first.
The assessment task sheet and marking rubric are not included. Lesson Creator doesn't generate assessment instruments or rubrics — they depend on your school's conditions, weightings and moderation. Every lesson that gets students ready to plan, run and write up the investigation is here.
Curriculum coverage
Each descriptor is taught where it fits the sequence, not front-loaded. Click a code to see the full descriptor.
examine how proposed scientific responses to contemporary issues may impact on society and explore ethical, environmental, social and economic considerations
Science as a human endeavour · Use and influence of science — taught in Week 8
plan and conduct reproducible investigations to answer questions and test hypotheses, including identifying variables and assumptions and, as appropriate, recognising and managing risks, considering ethical issues and recognising key considerations regarding heritage sites and artefacts on Country/Place
Science inquiry · Planning and conducting — taught in Week 2, Week 3, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8
select and construct appropriate representations, including tables, graphs, models and mathematical relationships, to organise and process data and information
Science inquiry · Processing, modelling and analysing — taught in Week 5, Week 9
construct evidence-based arguments to support conclusions or evaluate claims and consider any ethical issues and cultural protocols associated with using or citing secondary data or information
write and create texts to communicate ideas, findings and arguments for specific purposes and audiences, including selection of appropriate language and text features, using digital tools as appropriate
investigate the role of classification in ordering and organising the diversity of life on Earth and use and develop classification tools including dichotomous keys
use models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow in ecosystems and predict the impact of changing abiotic and biotic factors on populations
Give Lesson Creator your topic, year level and how many weeks you have, and it will plan the sequence, map it to the curriculum, and build the resources for every lesson in it — for whatever you're teaching next term.