Trace metamorphosis in butterflies and frogs, egg development, pollination, seed dispersal and germination. Review suitability for your learners before teaching.
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Worksheet StudioPractice pack · Ages 7-9
Animal & plant life cycles
Take your time. Show your thinking.
1. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
2. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
3. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
4. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
6. How are wind-pollinated plants (such as grasses, rice and maize) different from insect-pollinated flowers: they have small, dull flowers without scent or nectar and produce huge amounts of light pollen that blows in the wind, or they have giant neon petals?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
7. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
8. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
9. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
10. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
11. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12. How do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12 questions · Seed 47 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
View the answer key
Worksheet StudioAnswer key · Ages 7-9
Animal & plant life cycles
Answers and reasoning. Review before teaching.
1. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Frogs lay jelly-coated eggs in water that hatch into gill-breathing tadpoles before growing legs and lungs.
2. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Germination
Germination is the sprouting of a seed into a seedling.
3. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a dramatic transformation in body structure from larva to adult.
4. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
To attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds
As pollinators feed on nectar, pollen brushes onto their bodies and is carried to the next flower.
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
They hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places
Hooked burrs inspired the invention of hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro).
6. How are wind-pollinated plants (such as grasses, rice and maize) different from insect-pollinated flowers: they have small, dull flowers without scent or nectar and produce huge amounts of light pollen that blows in the wind, or they have giant neon petals?
They have small, dull flowers without scent or nectar and produce huge amounts of light pollen that blows in the wind
Because grasses rely on the wind rather than insects, they do not need showy petals or nectar.
7. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
In a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line
Female sea turtles crawl ashore at night to bury their eggs in sandy beaches; hatchlings then scramble to the sea.
8. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Caterpillar (larva)
The caterpillar is the larval stage specialised for feeding and growth.
9. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth)
Seeds use stored food reserves to germinate underground and do not need light until their first leaves emerge for photosynthesis.
10. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
It has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater
Coconuts can float across the sea for weeks and still germinate when washed onto a sandy beach.
11. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Fertilisation
After fertilisation, the ovule develops into a seed and the surrounding ovary swells into a fruit.
12. How do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location
Fleshy fruits reward fruit-eating birds and mammals, which transport the seeds away.
12 questions · Seed 47 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
Worksheet StudioPractice pack · Ages 7-9
Animal & plant life cycles
Take your time. Show your thinking.
1. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
2. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
3. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
4. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
6. How are wind-pollinated plants (such as grasses, rice and maize) different from insect-pollinated flowers: they have small, dull flowers without scent or nectar and produce huge amounts of light pollen that blows in the wind, or they have giant neon petals?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
7. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
8. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
9. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
10. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
11. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12. How do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12 questions · Seed 47 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
Worksheet StudioAnswer key · Ages 7-9
Animal & plant life cycles
Answers and reasoning. Review before teaching.
1. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Frogs lay jelly-coated eggs in water that hatch into gill-breathing tadpoles before growing legs and lungs.
2. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Germination
Germination is the sprouting of a seed into a seedling.
3. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a dramatic transformation in body structure from larva to adult.
4. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
To attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds
As pollinators feed on nectar, pollen brushes onto their bodies and is carried to the next flower.
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
They hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places
Hooked burrs inspired the invention of hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro).
6. How are wind-pollinated plants (such as grasses, rice and maize) different from insect-pollinated flowers: they have small, dull flowers without scent or nectar and produce huge amounts of light pollen that blows in the wind, or they have giant neon petals?
They have small, dull flowers without scent or nectar and produce huge amounts of light pollen that blows in the wind
Because grasses rely on the wind rather than insects, they do not need showy petals or nectar.
7. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
In a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line
Female sea turtles crawl ashore at night to bury their eggs in sandy beaches; hatchlings then scramble to the sea.
8. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Caterpillar (larva)
The caterpillar is the larval stage specialised for feeding and growth.
9. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth)
Seeds use stored food reserves to germinate underground and do not need light until their first leaves emerge for photosynthesis.
10. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
It has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater
Coconuts can float across the sea for weeks and still germinate when washed onto a sandy beach.
11. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Fertilisation
After fertilisation, the ovule develops into a seed and the surrounding ovary swells into a fruit.
12. How do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location
Fleshy fruits reward fruit-eating birds and mammals, which transport the seeds away.
12 questions · Seed 47 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification