Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: What is biodiversity?

30 minutes

Find Out: Schoolyard audit

10+ minutes

Take Action: Share your results

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore the concepts of species survival and biodiversity.

Students can:

conduct a schoolyard biodiversity audit
report and share their findings.

Tune In: What is biodiversity?

Step 1

Share the following image with students, explaining that it is the poster for National Science Week 2024.

National Science Week 2024 Official poster - (scienceweek.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Species-survival-poster-2024.pdf )

Invite students to complete a Think, Pair, Share (pz.harvard.edu/resources/think-pair-share) task around this poster, using the questions below to guide their thinking (also provided on the Student Worksheet):

What do you think ‘species survival’ might refer to?
Why do you think it might be about ‘more than just sustainability’?
What does the choice of animals in the poster tell you about the message of this poster?

Once complete, invite students to share their thoughts with the class.

Step 2

Pose the question:

What is biodiversity?

Invite students to suggest what biodiversity means and record their responses on the board.

Step 3

Distribute a copy of the Biodiversity Factsheet to each student. Invite them to read through the fact sheet, and using the space provided on the sheet, add notes in response to the following questions:

What information is new to me?
What information is most interesting?
What questions do I have about this information?

Once complete, discuss student responses.

Any questions raised by this fact sheet could be posed to other students for a response or used to guide further inquiry.

Step 4

Refer students to the poster they viewed earlier and ask them, How does the information on this fact sheet relate to the theme for National Science Week - ‘Species survival; more than just sustainability’?

Again, invite students to share their responses.

Step 5

Share the following video with your students, which features David Attenborough explaining why biodiversity is so important to humans and how biodiversity loss impacts our world.

Why is biodiversity important - with Sir David Attenborough | The Royal Society (youtube.com/watch?v=GlWNuzrqe7U&t=52s)

Once complete, invite students to reflect on this video by posing the following questions:

What information is new to me?
What information is most interesting?
What questions do I have about this information?
How does the information in this video relate to the theme for National Science Week - ‘Species survival; more than just sustainability’?

Find Out: Schoolyard audit

Step 1

In this part of this lesson, students will undertake a biodiversity audit of their schoolyard. In groups, they will explore the schoolyard to find and record various living organisms, including animals (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians), plants, and other organisms (fungi or anything they're unsure about).

Consider sharing this great article (abc.net.au/news/science/2024-02-10/biodiversity-hotspot-lockdown-housemates-brisbane-species/103210874) about the value of backyard biodiversity audits - maybe you’ll discover your school is a biodiversity hotspot!

Step 2

Using a map of your school, divide the schoolyard into several sites and name them (e.g., oval, gardens in front of year 7 and 8 building, yard around the office). Assign one site to each group of students, ensuring each group has a similar amount of space to survey.

Give each group a copy of the Biodiversity Audit Record Sheet and a magnifying glass for observing invertebrates. Students could also take a device to photograph any species they cannot identify while in the yard. They can also look for evidence of organisms, such as feathers, scats or insect or spider exoskeletons left behind after moulting.

Before heading out into the yard, remind students of your outdoor learning guidelines, for example, avoiding insect bites, staying within earshot, and working in pairs.

Some resources to support the identification of organisms could include:

BugFinder (insectidentification.org/bugfinder-start.php)
Birds in Backyards - Bird Finder (birdsinbackyards.net/finder)
FrogID (frogid.net.au/frogs)
Australian Museum - Reptiles (australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/)
Australian Tree ID app (australiantree.com.au/)

It can be difficult to identify invertebrates and plants correctly; encourage students to have a guess and provide a justification for their guesses. Where possible, take pictures and notes of these species to attempt identification later.

Step 3

Once students have conducted their schoolyard biodiversity audit, invite groups to share what they found with other groups. Work together to consider how you might analyse the data you have collected, for example:

number of different species
number of each species
kingdom/phylum/order most represented
total number of species.

Take Action: Share your results

Step 1

Students will now consider how to represent and share the results of their schoolyard biodiversity audit. They could create a poster, short video or presentation. The communication piece they create should be inspired by the poster viewed earlier in the lesson and should include information that supports the message ‘Species survival; more than just sustainability’.

Students could also consider researching ways to improve habitats for the species observed at their school and including this information in their communication piece.

Step 2

Once complete, consider allowing students to share their work with other members of the school community, including their suggestions for improving school habitats.

Reflection

Invite students to respond to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Does observing and recording the biodiversity in your schoolyard make you feel any different about the plant and animal species in your school? Why or why not?
Does knowing more about biodiversity at your school make you appreciate the message ‘Species survival; more than just sustainability’ in a different way than you did at the start of this lesson? Explain your answer.

Schoolyard Species Survival

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson