What year levels is this challenge for?

The Adaptations Challenge is designed for Years 5 and 6, aligned to the Australian Curriculum Science understanding strand for those year levels.

Do students need to submit a fictional organism?

Submission is optional. Teams design their fictional organism as part of the challenge learning experience, but entering the competition is their choice.

How are submissions judged?

Arludo assesses submissions on five criteria (each worth 20%): adaptations suited to environment; uniqueness of design; explanation of how adaptations help survival; visual quality and clarity; evidence of effort. You can share these criteria with students before they begin.

Can the organism be drawn by hand?

Yes. Students can submit drawings, paintings, collages, AI-generated images, digital art, 3D digital models, clay models, or dioramas — as long as the final submission is an image or PDF file.

Challenge

Adaptations Challenge

How do living things survive in their environments? Your students are about to find out.

Teams investigate structural and behavioural adaptations in real animals, then design a fictional organism perfectly adapted to a habitat of their choice. Seven inquiry-based digital lessons, guided by the Australian Curriculum Science strand.

Year levels

Years 5–6

Duration

7 lessons (~45 min each)

Submissions

Each school term

Prize

Featured on arludo.com

What students do

Investigate how real animals adapt to survive in their environments
Explore structural adaptations (body shape, colouring, features) and behavioural adaptations (habits, feeding, defence)
Analyse data and identify patterns across different species and habitats
Design a fictional organism with well-justified structural and behavioural adaptations
Document the design in an Adaptations Challenge slide deck
Submit the team creation to the Arludo Adaptations Challenge website (optional)

The science behind it

The Adaptations Challenge is built around the Year 5–6 Science Understanding strand: living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment.

Students engage in genuine inquiry — observing, questioning, analysing, and creating. The challenge develops scientific thinking skills including data literacy, evidence-based reasoning, and scientific communication.

Access Lessons via the Arludo Science Portal

Create your free teacher account at teach.arludo.com to access all seven Adaptations Challenge lessons, download lesson plans, and share lesson links with your class.

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How the Adaptations Challenge Works

Investigate

Students explore how real animals — from lizards to invertebrates — use structural and behavioural adaptations to survive in their environments.

Design

Teams design a fictional organism for their chosen environment, documenting structural and behavioural adaptations in their Adaptations Challenge slide deck.

Submit (optional)

Submit the team's fictional organism design to be featured on the Arludo Adaptations Challenge website. Submission is optional — participation is the goal.

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Curriculum Aligned to Years 5–6

The Adaptations Challenge maps directly to the Australian Curriculum v9 Science strand for Years 5 and 6, with additional alignment to the NSW Science and Technology K–6 Syllabus.

AC9S5U01 — structural features and behaviours that enable survival in specific habitats
AC9S6U01 — physical conditions of a habitat and their effect on living things
Science Inquiry: questioning, data collection, analysis, and communication
NSW Stage 3 Science and Technology alignment

See Full Curriculum Links

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