: Giant Weta and Giant Dragonfly
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Approach: One to one Level: Year 4 and year 8 
access task
Focus: Obtaining and analysing visual information
Resources: 2 pictures, recording book

Questions/instructions:

Show student pictures of insects. [click on pictures to enlarge.]
These pictures show two different insects:
a Giant Weta and a Giant Dragonfly.
Have a very careful look at these two insects before I ask you to tell me what is different about them.

Allow a short time.
Now tell me all the things that you notice that are different about these two insects. As you tell me, I’ll write them down.
Now I’ll read back what I’ve written down, and if you want to tell me some more things that are different about the two insects, I’ll add them to the list.

giant weta




% responses
2006 ('02)
y4
y8
 
wings for dragonfly, not for weta
94 (92)
96 (96)
 
long tail for dragonfly, little bumps for weta
62 (50)
53 (47)
 
long antennae for weta, not for dragonfly
78 (73)
81 (81)
 
two additional antennae for weta
14 (19)
20 (19)
 
eyes much larger for dragonfly
61 (58)
79 (71)
 
legs relatively longer for weta
51 (50)
62 (62)
 
spikes on legs for weta, not dragonfly
61 (57)
72 (64)
 
different body shape, structure
59 (66)
73 (75)
 
different colours
44 (39)
56 (63)
Total score:
8–9
6 (6)
11 (11)
6–7
37 (31)
52 (51)
4–5
46 (49)
32 (32)
2–3
10 (13)
4 (6)
0–1
1 (1)
0 (0)
Subgroup Analysis:
Year 4
Year 8
Commentary:
In this task, students identified differences between these two insects. Year 8 students performed somewhat better than year 4 students; however, there was little difference from four years ago in the scores. There were no gender differences in either year 4 or year 8, nor were there any notable differences among Pakeha, Mäori and Pasifika students for either year 4 or year 8.
 
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Giant weta large Giant Dragonfly