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Science
The Access Asia program aims to increase empathy, knowledge and understanding about the peoples and countries of Asia amongst teachers and children.
Do you know how many countries make up Asia? Forty nine! What are the names of these countries?
The practice of Science is the same all over the world so scientists follow very carefully all the information that comes from every country. So how does Asia differ from Australia scientifically?
The world was just one landmass around 280 million years ago. All the major current northern and southern hemisphere continents were joined into one landmass called Pangaea.
About 225 million years ago Pangaea began to break up as the crustal plates began to move apart. Australia has been separated from the rest of the world for a very long time. Each country is unique in the flora and fauna that it possesses. Anyone that is able to travel to another country and study the wildlife of that country is very lucky.
As we have been separated from the rest of the world for such a long time, the flora and fauna of Australia and Asia are very different. To travel to Asia and study the real thing is best, but for those of us who cannot do that we have wonderful sites available on the internet to help quench our thirst for knowledge about Asian flora and fauna.
Our Science department has several units of work that relate to Asia and one topic specially prepared for Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8) students on the internet. This topic is called Cyber Tiger and is about the Siberian tiger.
Two of our Biology topics which will help in your understanding of our relationship to Asia are: Evolution of Australian Biota which details the movement of the crustal plates and The Human Story which spends time on the Primates which share common ancestors with humans. Many of these primates are now found exclusively in Asia.
Links
If you are interested in finding out more about the flora and fauna of Asia here are a few sites that may wet your appetite:
- http://www.travelanka.com/verOla/English/flora&fauna.html This site is full of wonderful photographs and information about Sri Lanka.
- http://www.toruismindonesia.com/flora_fauna.asp. Indonesia's tourist bureau has really done a wonderful presentation of the wildlife in their country.
- http://www.zoo.com.sg . Singapore zoo is not to be missed - you will find out much about the different fauna to be found in many different countries at Singapore zoo.
Visit any search engine and put in Asia flora and fauna and you will many wonderful sites to visit. The tourist ministry of each country has done their best to present the most unique flora and fauna they have available for the tourist to see.
The links below go to some other sites that deal with Science in Asia.