Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
30 minutes – Part B: Revealing the Spider
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin by creating a mind map on the board of students' current knowledge about spiders of all kinds. Prompt students further by asking;

What do spiders eat?
What eats spiders?
Where do spiders live?
What might be some of the good things spiders do in their ecosystem or habitat? E.g. many students will be unaware that spiders keep the population of 'undesirable' insects down, such as cockroaches, wasps and other, more dangerous spiders, as well as being a food source for other species.

Step 2.

You might like to read the article The Conversation - I’m searching firegrounds for surviving Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spiders. 6 months on, I’m yet to find any by Jess Marsh.

Otherwise, students can read this article on their own.

Step 3.

Independently, students record facts about the Micro-trapdoor spiders using dot points.

Step 4.

Students think creatively to create a vocabulary bank about spiders, such as 'furry', 'spindly legs', or 'shiny'. They add this to their list of notes, and you can collate them on the whiteboard.

Step 5.

Prompt students with this quote from the article from The Conversation;

The Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor Spider... is a predator, but we don’t really know what it eats. It’s a food source for birds, mammals or reptiles, but we don’t know what eats it.

... the ecosystem is so complicated we don’t know exactly how the loss of one species will impact its prey, the parasites that live on it or its predators. And when we’re facing multiple extinctions, these effects could be devastating... we have no way of measuring the scale of risk or the repercussions.

That’s a fact we should all find scary.

Step 6.

Explain to students that the loss of a species can have implications up and down the food chain. In the aftermath of the bushfires, predators that eat the Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor Spider now have no food source, meaning they could go extinct, and then their predators won't have a food source, and so on.

Species that the Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor Spider preyed upon now have no natural check on their population, meaning these species could grow out of control, and start to have an impact on the ecosystem due to overpopulation.

Explain that whilst the immediate impact of the bushfires is obvious - the loss of habitats and species - the far-reaching consequences are not yet known, and are potentially very problematic.

Step 7.

This is a great opportunity to discuss with students the fact that there is so much about our world we don't know, and that's okay - part of Jess' and other scientists' roles is to discover and test these things. A big part of science is changing our thinking with each new discovery or being open to other ideas when we're not totally certain about something.

Step 8.

One way students can take social action is to bring attention to the efforts of these scientists and the plights of these threatened species through art.

Part B: Revealing the Spider

Step 1.

This lesson will use parts of Jess Marsh's article on The Conversation as inspiration for a creative writing exercise. Ask students to think from the perspective of the Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor Spider, and use their writing skills to make these facts interesting, to tell the spider's story, and especially to make humans empathetic towards their plight, so that they might consider how to help these creatures.

Read through the following quotes and additional prompts.

Then allow students time to write a paragraph or two, before moving onto the prompt for the next part of the story.

Step 2.

The Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spider has an interesting history. It is the only member of its genus found in Australia, its closest relative being in Africa. Studies show it arrived here between 2 and 16 million years ago, likely rafting across the ocean on vegetation! A true voyager.

Imagine you are a spider setting out on this journey. What emotions would you be experiencing? What materials might your raft be constructed of? Use your senses to explore what you might see, hear, and touch whilst out on the ocean. Begin your story with the Spider's journey from Africa to Kangaroo Island, Australia.

Step 3.

Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spiders exist only on Kangaroo Island. They live in short, 6cm burrows, built neatly into creek banks. They are slow, calm spiders, spending most of their time in their burrow, determinedly holding the door shut with their fangs.

Imagine trying to build a burrow. Use your senses to explore what the creek bed looks like, and how it feels beneath your feet. What sensations do you experience whilst digging? What emotions are you feeling - are you in a rush to build your home to avoid predators, or are you excited to settle down? Write about creating your new home on Kangaroo Island, Australia, and your first few days of living there.

What do you do during the day? Do you hide in your burrow, worried about everything outside? Or are you eagerly anticipating some prey crawling past, so that you can fling open the door and gobble them up? Describe your feelings.

Step 4.

The females care for their young; I have opened a trapdoor to find 20 tiny spiders living together with their mother.

When old enough, the young spiders will disperse and build burrows of their own, usually only a few metres from their mother’s burrow.

Imagine growing up in such a crowded house! If you looked into a Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spider's burrow, what would you see? What would be the experience of being amongst all those little spiders?

Think about your friends and family being close by, living just a few burrows down. Is this a happy place to live?

Step 5.

The species is vulnerable to fire. Its burrows are likely too short to protect them from high intensity fire.

Imagine a fire is sweeping across Kangaroo island. What is the first sign you notice? Is it the smoke on the wind? How does it smell? Is it other animals fleeing the fire front? What are you feeling - panic, distress?

Imagine the fire washes over the trap door of your burrow? What physical sensations are you experiencing? What emotions are you feeling? Describe the spider's experience of the fires.

Step 6.

Surviving the initial blaze is the first step in the struggle for survival. The post-fire environment has many threats – habitat loss, exposure to hungry predators... changes in its food supply... weeds. Today, I noticed areas where soil, loosened by fire, has washed into creeks, completely burying them.

Imagine stepping out of your burrow after the fire has passed? Use your sense to explore this space. What can you see? Everything familiar is now different. What can you hear, if anything? The ground might still be hot to walk on. Some of your neighbours' trapdoors are buried under layers of muck. How are you feeling?

Step 7.

There is hope, though. It’s not yet over for these species. Work such as ours is a step towards understanding how worsening bushfires will affect these vital, but often forgotten, members of our ecosystem.

End your story on a hopeful note. Perhaps there is a colony of spiders who survived the fires. Perhaps there are already signs of recovery in the ecosystem, with new plants sprouting. Perhaps you feel supported by the sight of Jess and other scientists trying their best to find you, rebuild your homes, and help you survive the next fire.

Step 8.

Allow students some time to edit their writing. Specifically, ask them to go back over their manuscript and consider their word choices. Have they used the most evocative words and phrases to really make the audience empathise with the plight of the spiders?

Reflection

Some students can volunteer to share their work. Their peers provide constructive criticism about what worked and what areas of the piece could be stronger.

Consider this final quote from Jess Marsh.

Not everyone loves spiders. I get that. But the functions invertebrates perform are vital. Our ecosystem relies on them; humans rely on them.

It can be hard to understand how so many small creatures form an important part of the whole ecosystem, but they're there, doing their little jobs.

Ask students to reflect on the big and small impact of the bushfires. Are there any other forgotten species that students might be like to explore? This could serve as the impetus for further independent research.

Differentiated Learning

Extension / Provisions for Learning Support -

Whilst this lesson is designed for students to write a first-person account of the spiders' journey, students could challenge themselves, or feel more comfortable, to work in a different medium.

Students could instead write a narrative from a third-person perspective, write a poem, or draw and annotate a comic strip.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Beyond the Bushfires - Mystery Spiders

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