Teacher preparation:

Overarching learning goal:

Students understand the terms 'biodiversity' and 'habitat'.
Students recognise that there are a range of habitats at their school.
Students understand how to identify biodiversity hot spots at their school.

Teacher content information:

For information about biodiversity - what it is, where it is, how it helps us and what we are doing to protect it - read this short article.

See what other schools are doing by exploring a case study here.

This activity can be repeated at set intervals to see if biodiversity is improving at your school. This activity could also be conducted at different times of the year (seasonally) to see how the biodiversity differs according to different seasons.

Student and classroom organisation:

Step 1.

What is a habitat? What is biodiversity?

Begin this activity by discussing with your student what a habitat is and what biodiversity is. Consider the following questions:

What is a habitat? (Suggested answer: A habitat is the natural home of an animal or plant.)
What is some examples of habitats? (Suggested answers: e.g. grassland, forest, desert, coast, mountains, polar.)
What types of habitats do you think are at your school?
What is biodiversity? (Suggested answer: Biodiversity is the variety of all living things; the different plants, animals and micro organisms.)
What biodiversity features do you think you will find at your school? (Suggested answers: birds, geckos, spiders, ants, trees, shrubs, flowers etc.)

Step 2.

Identify school habitat sites and look for signs of biodiversity

Break your class into groups and give each group a camera. As a class take a walk around the school, looking for habitat sites. Some of the common school ground habitats are:

Garden beds with shrubs
Garden bed with flowers
Lawn
Trees with grass underneath
Trees with plants underneath
Trees with leaf litter or mulch underneath
Grassy oval
Gully
Vegetable garden
Wet gully or bog
Pond
Revegetated forest
Native grass bed
Gravel
Weed infested area

At each habitat site ask students to (consider asking each group to focus on and record the information for one site):

Photograph the site.
Look for signs of animal life - this may include indirect signs of animals such as diggings, holes, features. Ask students to write down the number of animals (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects) that they see. Students can use the student worksheet to record this information. Remind students to be very careful not to turn over stones or branches - search with your eyes, not your fingers! Spend the same amount of time at each site recording signs of animal life.
Record the number of plants at each site, again using the student worksheet. Plants may include trees, shrubs, mosses, grass, flowers and ground covers.

Step 3.

Biodiversity hotspots

Students now need to locate the biodiversity 'hot spot' of the school. The hot spot is the habitat site with the greatest species diversity (number and abundance of organisms). Use the data already gathered to help identify your habitat hot spots.

Break the class into as many groups as there are identified habitat sites and ask each group to count the number of plant and animal species recorded at each site. Is there an area that clearly has more biodiversity than others? This is your biodiversity hot spot!

Step 4.

Sharing your biodiversity hotspot

Choose one or all of the following:

Ask students to do a drawing of their school's habitat hot spot.
Write a short story about the animals that live at your school.
Using one photo from the selection taken by the class, ask groups/students to create a poster or audio/visual presentation (for example, using Prezi) that shows how this habitat site and the biodiversity there could be improved.

Take Action - Ideas to increase biodiversity at your school

Project	Description	Resources
Nesting Boxes	Many birds and mammal species rely on hollows in trees for shelter and breeding. Natural hollows in trees take years to develop and nesting boxes can be a great alternative.	How-to-build-a-nesting-box Nesting-box-construction-guide.
Frog bog	Help increase the biodiversity at your by building habitats for frogs	CERES hub
Wildlife corridors	Contact your local council about connecting your school to wildlife corridors in your area.	Your local council
Planet Arks School Tree Day	Take part in the largest nature-care event in Australian schools, Planet Ark’s Schools Tree Day. You’ll be joining thousands of amazing teachers in making a difference, fostering a child’s love of nature and creating positive environmental change.	Schools Tree Day Tree Day Learning resources
Indigenous Garden	Increase biodiversity at your school by planting a habitat garden.	How to plant a native garden
Butterfly garden	Design and plant a butterfly garden for your school.	ActWild - Get Grubby
Biodiversity walk	Create a guided walk of the biodiversity at your school (this is an excellent opportunity to incorporate IT engagement into learning by using QR codes).
Weed removal	Contact your local council about identifying weeds at your school and create an action plan for their removal.	Your local Council
The day of...	Get involved with a National or International Day of...	e.g. SeaWeek, International Day for Biological Diversity, World Turtle Day, National Biodiversity Month, National Bilby Day, World Habitat Day.

Check out the Cool Australia Biodiversity Toolbox for more resources.

Inspiration

East Bentleigh Primary School has developed a range of gardens to improve biodiversity and provide experiences for its students and community. http://vimeo.com/47151990

Extension

Using a map of the school grounds (use Google Maps if you can't access a hard copy at your school) to work with students in locating all the habitat sites on the map. Depending on the age and ability of your class, students can create their own maps and identify these areas themselves.

Make a legend for the map that can be used to identify the different habitat sites at your school (for example, an image of grass shows where lawn can be found, while a picture of water could be used to show where a pond is). Write down the different habitats that occur in the school (use a separate piece of paper if there isn’t room on the map) and include photos next to the information about these habitats. Make sure each habitat is clearly marked on the map.

Use the map to revisit habitat sites regularly over a set period of time (i.e. one month, one term) to assess the health of that habitat over time.

AuSSI Biodiversity Audit (Lower Primary)

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