How Do You Count Lions?

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• critical thinking
• collaboration
• communication

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description: [8, Mathematics]

• Students learn to investigate techniques for data collection including census, sampling, experiment and observation, and explain the practicalities and implications of obtaining data through these techniques (AC9M8ST01)
• analyse and report on the distribution of data from primary and secondary sources using random and non-random sampling techniques to select and study samples (AC9M8ST02)

Relevant parts of Year 8 achievement standards: Students conduct statistical investigations and explain the implications of obtaining data through sampling.

NSW Syllabus outcomes:

A student:

• classifies and displays data using a variety of graphical representations (MA4-DAT-C-01)
• analyses simple datasets using measures of centre, range and shape of the data (MA4-DAT-C-02).

General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability 

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium - explicit teaching combined with student investigation and application.

UN SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

• data collection method factsheets (GPS tracking, camera traps, neck measurements, whisker spot patterns) (1 per group)
• device to display presentation
• Student Worksheet ( 1 per student)

Since Disney released The Lion King, in 1994 and the world fell in love with its story of adventure, friendship, and family on the savanna, Africa has lost half of its lions.

In 2019, Disney released the groundbreaking live-action adaptation of The Lion King and teamed up with the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund and its partners to help bring back lions in the wild. Through this collaboration, Disney and the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund encouraged audiences to “Protect the Pride,” urging fans and wildlife lovers around the world to participate in the conservation of lions and their habitats and help support local people who live alongside lions.

Now, five years later, with the release of Mufasa: The Lion King in theatres on December 19, Disney and the Lion Recovery Fund are teaming up again to continue efforts to Protect the Pride, celebrate successes to date, and grow hope for a future where lions and people thrive.

Find out more about how you can Protect the Pride here (disney.com.au/mufasa-the-lion-king-protect-the-pride).

Cool.org would like to extend our thanks to the Lion Recovery Fund and the Zambian Carnivore Programme (zambiacarnivores.org/programme) for their contribution of data, imagery and stories from the field to bring these resources to life. The Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP) is a Zambian-registered non-profit organisation dedicated to conserving large carnivores and the ecosystems they reside in through a combination of conservation science, conservation actions, and a comprehensive education and capacity-building effort. We would particularly like to thank PhD candidates Anna Kusler and Johnathan Reyes de Merkle and wish them the best of luck with their continued research.

Lesson feature image courtesy of Felix Studios.

Visualise Data in the Primary Classroom 

Quick Summary: Teach Year 3-6 students how to use infographics to explore and represent information, data or knowledge. Infographics can be used as a teaching and learning tool in any primary subject.

Infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge. They have grown in popularity because they communicate information quickly and clearly. In this hands-on course, you will build your ability to use infographics as a learning tool in your classroom. You’ll discover how to understand infographics and create your own.