Teacher preparation:

Overarching learning goals:

Students recognise there are a range of different native animals at their school.
Students understand that animals can be identified through the traces they leave behind as well as through visual sitings.
Students understand that there are a range of habitat types at their school.

Teacher content information: Animals need a home. Many are really fussy about where they live and what they can eat. By measuring the number of animal species for different locations in the school, students can show the variation in biodiversity in different school ground habitats. Measuring biodiversity on school grounds can be confusing. It is important to build an understanding of which species are native to the area and which are uninvited weeds.

Students are not expert biologists and can’t be expected to do a comprehensive survey. However, if they use the same survey techniques for different locations, any problems they may have won’t affect their data as students are comparing areas.

Safety - reinforce several times that bees must never be caught and must always be avoided. Bees in Australia cause more deaths than all other combined wildlife including sharks, snakes and spiders. Student should also keep their distance from wasps.

Photographs - If on-site identification is too difficult, encourage students to photograph animals or traces of animals for identification later (e.g. Scat identification sheet).

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.

Student and classroom organisation:

This activity is broken up into five parts:

Deciding on the area
Survey technique
Doing the survey and collecting data
Analysing the data
Drawing conclusions

Step 1.

Deciding on the area

The school grounds need to be divided into several areas to be surveyed. The areas should have something very distinctive to separate them. The distinction might be:

The kind of plants i.e., areas dominated by native trees, introduced trees, garden beds, vegetable garden, grass, area with thick native shrubs and tussock grasses
Physical conditions - i.e., court yard, playground, wide open spaces (oval), packed large trees, etc.
Growing conditions i.e., garden soil worked over, old established trees, young growing trees.

Have a quick look around the school grounds and divide the school grounds so at least one or more features are very different. The class will need four areas to survey.

On a map of the school ground, shade in the areas to be surveyed. No area should vary extremely in size compared to the other areas.

Step 2.

Survey technique

In this activity, four surveys for collecting data are suggested. Students should be divided into four groups. Groups of students will collect data for one of the four survey techniques.

a) Bird survey

Students may use binoculars if they wish. Teachers will need to work with students to make sure they can use them. There are three adjustments on binoculars.

One of the eye pieces rotate to help people who wear glasses. Make sure the eye piece is adjusted to zero.
The binoculars bend in the middle so the two eye pieces can be adjusted for the position of the eyes.
In the middle of the binoculars, there is usually a knob that rotates. This knob adjusts the focus to make the vision sharp for different distances.

Students can observed birds from sight and sound, but they must come from the located area. The birds must be doing something in the area other than just flying over head in a straight line.

The data students are to record is:

The number of bird species.
How do the birds use the habitat? (E.g., walking, feeding, flying, resting, sunbathing, hiding, drinking, fighting, climbing, etc.)

Make a data recording sheet, you can modify it or use the provided data recording sheet.

b) Soil mini beasts survey

Use a hand trowel or old plastic ruler to poke around the soil looking for mini beasts Any mini beasts that looks different needs to be recoded. As there will be a few students in the group, attempt to catch the animals in sample jars or petrie dishes. Use plastic rules or small paint brushes to flick the animals into the jars. The animals should not be picked up. Group animals according to where they are found in the leaf, litter or soil.

How many species of mini beasts are there? (This includes the animals caught, plus any distinctive animals that got away.)
Where do they like to live ? (E.g., on the top of the soil or leaf litter, among dry dead leaves and bark on the surface, among rotting leaves, in soft soil, in hard soil, around roots.)
Fill in the data sheet and highlight the behaviour of the mini beasts

c) Leaf and tree mini beast survey

Collect data about how many mini beasts were collected from plants. You will need to capture the mini beasts from the tree. One technique is to use a clean battery operated vacuum cleaner to suck mini beasts from the leaves and grass (this will not harm the animals). Tap the creatures out into a large white tray. Small flies will escape in about a second so watch carefully. Use collecting jars or petrie dishes to collect the mini beasts. Keep mini beasts caught in the different locations separate. After each site, identify and count the total number of species.

How many species of mini beasts are there? (E.g., this will count from the animals caught plus any distinctive animals that got away.)
Where do they like to live? (E.g., on a tree trunk, under the bark, among the leaves of a tree or shrub, in the grass or ground cover, on the branches, in the air.)

d) Animal evidence survey

Students will carefully and methodically look for evidence animals leave behind - this is called indirect observations. Use a small digital cameras or a tablet to take photos close up. If student do take photos close up they should include a ruler in the photos so they can compare sizes later. These are examples of what they can look for.

Chewed leaves (how many different plants?)
Holes in wood (how many different size holes?)
Lumps and bumps on stems (how many different plants?)
Lumps and bumps on leaves (how many different plants?)
Spider webs (how many different shapes?)
Bird or other animal droppings (how many different types - Scat identification sheet?)
Silk and other egg cases (how many different types?)
Dead animal parts (from how many animals?)
Animal burrows (how many different types of burrows?)

3. Doing the survey and collecting data

Students will need to:

Use the same names for the sites they will observe; use the same map and the same locations on their map to survey.
Design, modify or use the data survey record sheet provided.
Gather equipment e.g., rulers, binoculars, petrie dishes.
Decide how long they will survey each area e.g., ten mins, five mins.
Work out how the groups will rotate around the different survey sites.
Review safety rules that include:

Avoiding wasps and bees
There is to be no climbing and students must remain on the ground
When doing survey work remain two arm lengths from other students (that way when working on the ground students won’t be stood on)
Avoid prickly plants, litter, dog droppings, etc.
Return all mini beasts
Cover any holes that have been dug and replace leaf litter
Report any problems immediately.

4. Analysing the data

Once students have gathered their data they will need to analyse it. They can consider using graphs to compare the different sites for each survey. Using the data collected, student can suggest why some sites had more animals or activity than other sites.

Students can discuss how they wish to combine the four surveys. Do the four surveys have similar trends for different sites?

5. Drawing conclusions

Engage students in a discussion around the following questions (also available on the student worksheet):

Can students reach an overall conclusion or trend about where the most animals are found?
Can students provide reasons why some areas have more animals?
Would students like to collect and add different data to the survey?
Would students make modifications if they completed the survey a second time?

Fun ideas to increase school yard biodiversity

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

Check out the Cool Australia Biodiversity Toolbox for more resources.

AuSSI Native Animal Identification (Lower Primary)

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