Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and it's so good to see you here for today's lesson.

We are going to be learning all about the threats faced by macaroni penguins today, and we'll see how, as humans, we're contributing to some of those problems. We've got lots to learn, so let's get to work.

Today's lesson is called researching information about threats to a penguin from our unit called Pandas or Antarctic Animals, Non-Chronological Report.

And if you're doing this lesson, you're working towards writing a report about an Antarctic animal, specifically a macaroni penguin.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to write notes about threats that exist for macaroni penguins.

So your teacher might have asked you to record those notes in a particular place or in a particular format, or you may be using the worksheet attached to this lesson.

Either way, make sure that you store those notes away for using in the future.

Let's make our start.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson, my turn, your turn.

Threat.

Statistics.

Bullet points.

Formal tone.

And subject specific vocabulary.

Well done.

So a threat is a possibility that something harmful or unwanted will happen, and statistics are numerical facts or measurements.

Bullet points are punctuation marks that lay out key information in a nonfiction text, or they can be used as in this lesson to record notes.

A formal tone is created by using serious, factual language and subject specific vocabulary is vocabulary used when writing about a particular topic.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start off by researching the threats to macaroni penguins, and then we'll move on to generating some vocabulary about macaroni penguins and their habitat and diet that we can use in a report.

You've probably heard the word statistics used before, and statistics are numerical facts, facts that relate to numbers.

And using statistics in an non chronological report is a good way of helping our readers to understand the subject more deeply.

So here are some statistics about macaroni penguins that you might already know.

They weigh around 3.

5 kilogrammes, and they're 70 centimetre length.

That's a statistic because it's based around numerical facts, those numbers about the weight and the length.

We also know they breed up to 50 sites in Antarctica, South America, and Africa.

They breed in colonies, big groups of up to 100,000 birds.

They can dive to depths of 80 metres, staying underwater for two to three minutes, and in total, macaroni penguins consume 9.

2 million tonnes of krill a year.

All of these are statistics because they're numerical facts and they help the reader to understand much more about our subject, about the macaroni penguin.

So we could have just said they eat a lot of krill, couldn't we? But using statistics like the 9.

2 million tonnes makes our writing more authoritative.

It shows that we know important information about the subject of the report, and it convinces our reader that we're an authoritative source, that what we say can be believed and is interesting and is worth reading.

So true or false, all facts are statistics.

Pause the video and decide.

Well done.

You're right, that is false.

Now can you explain why? Which is the best justification for why that's false? Pause the video and decide.

Well done.

You're right, it's A.

Statistics are numerical facts, facts that link to numbers.

Lots of other facts are just statements that are true, but they're not statistics, and we need those facts too, but using statistics is a great way of showing how authoritative and knowledgeable we are in our report.

So of course, we are writing a non-chronological report about macaroni penguins using a general, specific, and general structure.

We start off with an introduction, giving general information about penguins, then we have specific sections around specific themes, like the penguins' appearance, their adaptations, their habitats, and their diet, and then we're broadening out again into a conclusion that talks about the future of the penguins in general.

And that's what we're focusing on today, the conclusion.

So we'll focus on the conclusion and the threats to macaroni penguins in the past and in the present.

So first of all, we need to know what's the current status of the macaroni penguin? What's the situation in terms of its population right now? And surprisingly, the macaroni penguin is the most common species of penguin in the world, with around 18 million individual penguins in the wild.

However, there's a big however, scientists estimate that around half of the population of macaroni penguins has been lost in some places in the last 50 years, so the population has fallen in half, and the macaroni penguin is categorised as vulnerable to extinction because of this dramatic drop in numbers.

And actually, most penguin species are doing okay.

Some of them are even increasing in population, but the macaroni penguin is one of the ones which is considered vulnerable to extinction because of this huge drop in numbers that it's experienced in the last 50 years.

So which graph best shows what has happened to macaroni penguin numbers since 1970? Pause the video and decide and explain.

Well done.

You're right, the answer is C.

This graph is showing us that big decline in the number of macaroni penguins since 1970, which is why they're still considered vulnerable to extinction even though there are 18 million of them left in the wild.

Really well done.

So we need to know why this decline in population has happened in the last 50 years, and we need to know what's being done to help.

So why did it happen first of all? Well, commercial fishing, that means fishing as a business, in the Southern Ocean for fish and for krill, reduce the amount of fish available to penguins, and that caused many of them to die.

Obviously, if there's less fish and krill available and we know penguins rely hugely on krill to eat, then that's going to make it harder for penguins to survive.

They might have to compete more with each other for food, and that means less food for each penguin, leading to a decline in the population.

So as a result of this, zoologists, or animal scientists, started up monitoring programmes at penguin breeding sites to find out more, to work out more about what could be done to solve this, and then many of the islands where the penguins breed were made into protected reserves where humans can not travel.

So there are lots of these islands, which are very, very remote anyway, but some of them have tourists visiting, but the breeding sites are often protected so that humans can't reach those breeding sites, and that would obviously disturb the penguins there.

However, the numbers are still falling.

So even though we have these protected reserves where humans can't go, the numbers of macaroni penguins are, unfortunately, still falling.

So true and false: thanks to conservation efforts, macaroni penguin numbers are no longer in any danger.

Pause the video and decide.

Well done.

You're right, that is false.

But can you explain why? Pause the video and decide which is the best justification.

Well done.

You're right, it's A.

So the penguin numbers are still falling despite the efforts that have been made.

So there has been conservation efforts the protected reserves, and the monitoring programmes that are in place by the zoologists, the animal scientists, but unfortunately, those measures are not stopping the falling macaroni penguin numbers, well done.

So macaroni penguins unfortunately now face another threat, which is climate change.

Let's go through the process of how that works.

We know that human activities that produce carbon emissions lead to climate change, and then as a result of this, climate change is causing the seas near the coasts and the Southern Ocean to become warmer.

Because the seas are becoming warmer, that's reducing the amount of krill that can be found near the coasts, which we know is where the penguins breed.

And then fewer krill, obviously, means fewer penguins because they have less to eat near their breeding grounds at the coast.

So we can see there's a chain of effects that lead from climate change to the penguin numbers falling.

As the sea gets warmer, we get fewer krill, and that means fewer penguins.

So can you put these events in order to show how climate change is affecting macaroni penguins? Start with number one as the first event and number four as the final effect.

Pause video and have a try.

Well done.

So the first step is that human carbon emissions cause climate change.

This causes the sea temperatures to rise near those coasts, and this causes the krill numbers to fall.

We know if the krill numbers fall, this causes penguin numbers to fall because they have less food.

Really well done for getting those in the right order.

Good job.

So are the statements below true or false? Pause the video and decide.

Well done, good effort.

Let's take a look.

So A says, "The situation for macaroni penguins has improved in recent years." Unfortunately, that is false because the numbers have still falling.

B says, "Some places where the penguins breed are not accessible to humans." That is true.

Accessible means they can get there and we know they're protected reserves, so humans can't reach all those places.

C says, "Macaroni penguins are intentionally killed by humans." That is false, we don't hunt for these penguins, but D says, "Human activity indirectly threatens the penguins." And that is true, isn't it? Because climate change caused by humans is causing those krill numbers to fall, which is affecting the penguin's ability to survive.

Really well done for getting those.

So let's do one final one.

Can you match the statements about penguins to the most appropriate label? Is the statement talking about their current status, their past problems, the conservation efforts that have been made to help them, or the current problems that they face? Pause the video and let's match these up.

Well done, good job.

So A says, "Fishing led to a huge fall in the numbers of penguins." That's the past problem, isn't it? B says, 'The penguins are considered vulnerable to extinction," that's their current status.

C says, "Climate change is reducing the amounts of krill in the ocean." That's the current problem they face.

And, "Some breeding grounds are in protected reserves" shows us the conservation efforts that have been made to help the macaroni penguins.

Really well done for matching those up correctly.

So let's do our first task of this lesson.

We need to get some detailed bullet point notes about the threats to penguins and the efforts to help them, those conservation efforts for our conclusion.

So here are some example notes about threats to stag beetles, and you'll see I've categorised them using the labels we just saw.

Their current status is they're a protected species due to their low numbers.

The past problems were that the woodland was turned into farmland and housing, leading to fewer habitats for them, so their numbers fell.

And look, I've got some arrows there to show cause and effect and some equal science to show the results of things.

I've said the conservation efforts were that the woodlands were protected from development from housing and farmland, and the current problems they face are the forests are being tidied up, leading to, there's the equal sign, less dead wood for lava to feed on.

So in the same way, I'd like you to use the same structure for your notes on penguins, their current status, their past problems, their conservation efforts, and their current problems, and you obviously don't need to use full sentence here 'cause we're writing in note form.

You might want to look back in the video to learn some more, or you might want to go away and do some research of your own to support your ideas here.

So pause the video, and let's have a go at making those notes.

Well done, really good effort.

Here's an example of the notes you might have made.

So their current status is that there are 18 million penguins, so the most common penguin species, but it's one of only two penguin species considered vulnerable to extinction.

And half the population has been lost since the 1970s in some places.

So the past problems were that commercial fishing led to a decline in fish and krill levels, leading to a decline in penguins, and that led to the conservation efforts.

So there are monitoring programmes and breeding colonies, and many islands are now protected reserves, which humans can't visit.

And the current problems are climate change leading to warmer seas, leading to a few kill near the coasts, leading to less food for the penguins.

Really well done for recording those notes so well.

That's going to really help you when you come to write your own work.

You might want to now have a go at converting those notes back into complete sentences to really lock these facts into your head.

For instance, for that last one, I could do several sentences joining up the cause and effect, or I could say climate change caused by human activity has increased the temperature of the sea.

As a result, there are fewer krill near the coast where the penguins feeds.

Due to this, there is less food for penguins, and the numbers are continuing to decline.

So if you'd like to have a go at converting your notes back to complete sentences out loud, pause the video now and have a try.

Well done.

So now we're going to move on to generating some vocabulary about macaroni penguins that we can use throughout our report.

So as well as having all of our brilliant knowledge about macaroni penguins, we'll also want to use some rich, subject specific vocabulary in our report.

And because a non-chronological report is a nonfiction text, we'll use a formal, serious tone instead of imaginative, narrative language.

Let me explain.

We can think of this as a spectrum between formal and informal tones.

We know that a formal tone would be serious and factual, and an informal tone might be a bit chatty and a bit fun and a bit imaginative.

So here's a passage with an informal tone.

I've written, "Macaroni penguins are funny little creatures known for their gorgeous yellow crest and their sassy behaviour.

You should hear how loud they are." So this is very informal.

It's quite chatty.

I've used language which is quite descriptive, I've said gorgeous and sassy, but it's descriptive in a way that is informal and not factual.

I'm almost giving my opinion really here, aren't I? Rather than simply describing what they are like.

So I could write it this way instead.

"The macaroni penguin is a vulnerable species instantly recognisable from its distinctive yellow crest and its noisy communication methods." So here I've used a much more formal tone because I'm being serious and factual, and instead of saying what I like about macaroni penguins, I'm simply describing what they're like using formal, serious language.

So I hope you can see the really clear difference there between informal tone and a formal tone, and we know we're going to adopt or use a formal tone in our non-chronological report because it's a non-fiction text.

So we can use nouns and adjectives to create expanded noun phrases to refer to penguins using this formal tone.

So first of all, there are lots of nouns we could use to refer to the penguins.

We could call them penguins, or we could call them animals, creatures, birds, or species.

And then we could use adjectives to pair with these nouns.

We could describe the macaroni penguins as distinctive, characterful, vulnerable, easily recognisable, flightless, sociable, communicative, that means they talk to each other a lot, ocean dwelling, that means they live in the ocean, migratory, they travel a lot, Antarctic, or yellow crested.

All of those would be good adjectives to describe the penguins in a formal manner.

So now I can pair them up.

I pair up the nouns and adjectives, and I could describe the penguins as this vulnerable species or these distinctive, ocean-dwelling penguins.

So there I've taken two adjectives and paired them with a noun.

I could say these communicative creatures or these characterful, migratory birds.

Each of these has a formal tone, even though we're using adjective to pair with nouns, just like we do when we're writing a narrative or a story.

But here are selected adjectives and nouns that create that formal tone.

So let's see if you can do the same.

Using these nouns and adjectives or your own ideas, create an expanded noun phrase that could be used to refer to the penguins.

You could say these something or this something to make your expanded noun phrase.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, great effort.

So maybe you came up with something like the sociable flightless creatures, or this communicative species, or these distinctive, yellow-crested birds.

I'm sure you came up with some brilliant ones of your own.

Well done.

So there are some other pieces of subject-specific vocabulary that we should know before we start writing our report.

So these are words which are very specific to the idea of talking about animals, or about penguins in particular.

So a bird's plumage is its feathers.

That word plumage is a very subject-specific word that is only related to when we're talking about birds, so that's a great one to use.

We could also use this word secrete.

If you secrete something, it's oozing out of you.

So that's a great word to use.

Remember the penguins secrete oil onto their feathers to make them waterproof.

We could use adaptations.

Adaptations are features that help animals survive.

The word blubber is a great one.

Blubber is that layer of fact that warms an animal, particularly a sea animal in a very cold sea, like the Southern Ocean.

We can use incubate.

This is specific to birds.

Birds incubate their eggs by sitting on them to warm them until they hatch.

A bird colony is a large group that nests together.

So we know a colony of macaroni penguins can be up to 100,000 individuals closely packed together.

Searching for food is called foraging.

We don't often think of sea creatures as foraging, but we do describe penguins as foraging in the ocean for food.

A bird moults by shedding its feathers and getting new ones, and we know that while that's happening, the penguin can not go fishing, so it uses up its fat layer to survive.

So all of these are words which, if we use them, we are showing our reader that we're authoritative and knowledgeable about the specific subject we're writing about, so these are great words to include in our report.

So let's practise using them.

Can you choose the correct words from the list on the right to complete each sentence? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Let's check together.

So A says, "The penguins breed in crowded," good, "Colonies." B says, "They secrete oil onto their plumage so that they can stay waterproof and warm." For C, we'd write, "The penguin's blubber layer is an adaptation that helps it stay warm." And for D, "One parent incubates the egg while another goes foraging for food in the ocean." Really good job for getting those matched up.

Now, we may also need some subject-specific expanded noun phrases to describe the penguin's appearance and adaptation, or particular features of its body.

For instance, its feathers we could describe as waterproof, tightly-packed, or oily.

So I could make the expanded noun phrase, "They have tightly-packed, waterproof feathers." Can you see how I've linked the adjectives and the noun together? Or I could describe the crest as distinctive, unique, and yellow.

I could say, "The penguin has a distinctive, yellow crest." For their body, I could say, "They have a well-insulated, streamlined body." And for other body parts we could describe their webbed feet, their solid bones, their powerful flippers.

So all of these help us with our formal tone because we're selecting formal, factual, serious words to describe these different body parts.

So we could say a sentence like this.

We could say, "Macaroni penguins have waterproof feathers, a streamlined body, a distinctive yellow crest, and powerful flippers." I've connected those expanded noun phrases together to give a description of the macaroni penguin's appearance.

Now you try.

Use the adjectives and nouns below to say a sentence describing a penguin's appearance, and you could start off by saying macaroni penguins have, and then select some expanded noun phrases to create your sentence.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Maybe you came up with something like this: "Macaroni penguins have tightly packed feathers, a well-insulated body, a unique yellow crest, and solid bones." We're describing the creature, but instead of it sounding like a story or a narrative, it sounds formal and serious, and that's appropriate for a non-chronological report.

Really well done.

And we'll also need some subject-specific vocabulary to describe other nouns that link to these penguins.

For instance, if I'm describing that nest, the scrape, we could call it a shallow, rock-lined, grass-filled scrape.

So I could say, "The penguin lays its egg in a shallow, rock-lined nest." If I'm describing the colony, we could call it crowded or busy, large or populous.

That means it's full of individuals or animals, or tightly packed.

I could say, "The penguin nests in a large, tightly-packed colony." If I'm describing some other features, I could call the krill tiny.

I could say oily secretions.

I could describe the orange-brown bill.

So we're trying to be specific and serious and factual here.

So I could write a sentence like this: "The penguin lays its egg in a shallow, rock-lined scrape, nest, in a crowded, populous colony." So here, the adjectives aren't imaginative, chatty, fun ones.

They're serious, factual ones which create this formal tone.

Okay, let's practise using those words, these subject-specific pieces of vocabulary.

I'd like you to match each adjective on the left with a noun from the right to create a word pair.

For example, I could match up tiny and krill to make tiny krill.

Pause the video and see if you can match them up.

Well done, good job.

So we would say tightly-packed feathers, distinctive crest, oily secretions, solid bones, streamlined body, crowded colony, orange-brown bill, and shallow scrape.

Really well done if you managed to match those up correctly.

So let's do our final task for this lesson.

We're going to create a word bank that we can use all the way through our writing to help us use this formal factual tone, but also giving rich description for our reader using this rich subject-specific vocabulary.

So I want you to create a word bank of vocabulary, and we can group the words into different categories so we can find them easily.

So using the words we've come up with in this part of the lesson, and you can look back through the lesson if you like or do some of your own, I'd like to think of, first of all, some ways of referring to the penguin, ways of describing its appearance, so those expanded noun phrases, ways of referring to particular parts of its diet and habitat, and some subject-specific words and word pairs that we've just seen in the last exercise.

So pause the video, look back through the video if you'd like, and let's gather together all the brilliant subject-specific vocabulary we want to use in our report.

Pause the video and have a go.

Really well done, great effort.

So here are some examples of words you might want to use.

So for ways of referring to the penguin, I could say, "These distinctive, ocean-dwelling creatures," or, "This vulnerable communicative species." For its appearance, I could say it has a unique yellow crest, tightly-packed feathers, streamlined body, webbed feet, and solid bones.

For those aspects of the diet and habitat, I could say tiny krill, shallow, grass-lined scrape, populous, crowded colony.

And for those subject specific word pairs, I've picked out oily secretions, well-insulated body, powerful flippers, and flightless birds.

So if I can use all of those in my report, my reader's going to really believe I'm an authoritative author, an authoritative writer, who they should trust and who's giving them credible information.

Really well done for your work in that task.

So let's review our learning in this lesson.

We learned that the conclusion to our report deals with the theme of threats to penguins looking towards the future.

And we learned that when we write a report, we use subject specific vocabulary that relates to the theme of each paragraph.

We learned that we can create expanded noun phrases that add to the formal tone of our report, and that using statistics makes our report more authoritative.

I'm really pleased with your work in this lesson.

You've come with some fantastic ideas that you can use to make your report really shine.

So well done and I hope to see you again in a future lesson.

Goodbye.