Africa Virtual University - AVU

Mode of Delivery

1. Rationale

This module follows the module on Plant Diversity, and it completes the knowledge of living organisms. It presents the rich variety of animal forms, in the aim of preserving them and preventing their extinction. It also underscores the economic, social, cultural, and scientific importance of animals. Learners are presented with interesting and useful learning activities designed to help them solve educational problems in class and acquire academic skills in the field of zoology: making drawings and schematic diagrams based on the exercises, organizing insect collections, identifying various living organisms, and so on.

2. Prerequisites or knowledge

This course follows the course on Plant Diversity, in which students acquire knowledge about a number of notions such as plant organization, convergence, and characteristics of living organisms.
Students must also understand the hierarchy of the biological classification of living organisms: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and species.
They must also know that animals, like plants, are living organisms that have a defined shape and size. They grow up, reproduce and die.
Zoology, the science that studies animals, draws on a wide variety of approaches. As an analytic science, it borrows from a number of other sciences, for instance, morphology and physiology. Zoology investigates successive evolutionary changes and adaptive diversifications. Hence, the need to classify, which is generally based on morphology, anatomy, reproduction, physiology, genetics, palaeontology, and the development cycle.


3. General objectives

General knowledge objectives (understanding)

1- Know the basic notions of zoology
2- Know the importance and utility of the Kingdom Animalia.
3- Understand the evolution of phyla in the animal world.

General method objectives (know-how)

1- Master the various steps of a scientific method in biology.
2- Master techniques of developing computer-assisted teaching tools.
General objectives for value and attitude clarification (soft-skills)
Safeguard biodiversity

4. Time

5. Materials