Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

25 minutes	Part B: Community Stewardship Recruitment
5 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Community Conservation Case Study

Step 1.

Watch:

Lord Howe Island, Australia's best kept secret (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzfLwQkM9LU)

Step 2.

Explain to students that Lord Howe Island is a World Heritage site with high biodiversity, including seabird nesting sites, flightless birds such as the Lord Howe Woodhen, and the world’s rarest insect, the Lord Howe Island Phasmid. Approximately 75% of Lord Howe Island’s original natural vegetation remains intact and undisturbed.

Step 3.

As a class, facilitate a discussion:

Why do you think it is important to preserve environments such as the ones on Lord Howe Island? Possible answers might include: It is a beautiful environment, the rich biodiversity should be preserved, it is important for tourism, it maintains ‘natural’ environments that have existed for thousands of years, humans should undo the damage they create.
What are some of the possible advantages Lord Howe Island has in preserving its environment? Being an island, it is isolated, meaning it has a natural kind of quarantine border from the rest of the world. The introduction of species, and humans, can be highly regulated through the singular plane that lands and how boats are allowed to dock. This should protect the island's environment from many outside forces which may negatively impact.
What are some of the possible disadvantages Lord Howe Island has in preserving its environment? Hint: think about predators. Introduced species are a huge problem in Australia. They can outcompete native species, and introduced predators can take advantage of prey that haven’t adapted to their presence. Lord Howe Island did not contain any predators until humans introduced due to its extreme isolation. Native species evolved without having to consider any predators as selection pressures, so they were vulnerable to many introduced species.

Step 4.

Independently, students read Part 1 of the Lord Howe Island rodent eradication case study.

Provisions for learning support - You may wish to read through the case study as a whole class, or work closely with a small group of student who require additional support.

Step 5.

Pause for a moment, and ask students to consider this scenario:

Imagine the principal marches in here and announces that they are sick and tired of the way the yard is not being kept clean. Even though we regularly have litter pick ups, the principal has decided its not working well enough. Starting today there is a new policy: each student has to carry a small rubbish bin around with them whenever they're out playing at recess and lunch time.

Step 6.

Discuss with students:

How would this announcement make you feel? Why? What problems do you have with the policy?
Do you feel like you should have been asked about this new policy before it starts?
Do you think you have a better solution?

Step 7.

This is analogous to how some residents of Lord Howe Island felt when the eradication program was first proposed.

In the video, local Naturalist Ian Hutton said the locals were quite varied, but as a whole were more environmentally aware than anywhere else in Australia, and that they want to see it preserved, for many of the reasons discussed at the start of the lesson.

However, when the eradication program was proposed, there were some members of the community who strongly opposed it.

Ask students:

Why might some members of the Lord Howe Island Community be against the eradication program?
What are some other potential challenges to running an eradication program on an isolated island?

Step 8.

Read on Part 2 of the Lord Howe Island rodent eradication case study to find answers.

Step 9.

Pause again and ask students:

What could the scientists working on the eradication program have done differently to avoid conflict with local residents?

Step 10.

Read on Part 3 of the Lord Howe Island rodent eradication case study to find answers.

Step 11.

Reiterate to the class that getting local communities on board with conservation efforts is integral to its success. Communities must feel stewardship, a sense of ownership over their local environment. Problems can be solved by together defining the problem, determining solutions, planning to overcome barriers to implementing the solution, then measuring success once the solution has been implemented.

Part B: Community Stewardship Campaign

Step 1.

Split students into groups of three, or allow them to choose their own groups.

Explain to students that they are going to take on a variety of roles focused around an invasive species eradication program. Each student in the group will approach the plan from a different perspective, and eventually bring unique strengths and knowledge to the overall plan.

Step 2.

Give each group a copy of the Student Worksheet, where the following steps will also be explained.

Step 3.

Students assign themselves one of three roles in their group from the Student Worksheet.

Students will be responsible for their individual roles, but of course can work collaboratively.

Step 4.

Students select an invasive species to target for their program from the Student Worksheet.

Step 5.

Students select an island with beautiful natural ecosystems, such as Lord Howe Island, Kangaroo Island or Christmas Island to use as their eradication proposal site.

Provisions for learning differentiation and support - The islands and list of invasive species have been included in order to scaffold students in this task. However, you may encourage students to choose an introduced species not on the list that occurs in their local region and make the poster to inform their own community about why an eradication program is necessary, thereby making the task more relevant and engaging to your students.

Step 6.

Independently, students research their invasive species and island, and complete the tasks assigned to their role.

Step 7.

As a team, students design a communication piece, such as a poster or infographic, to recruit and inform community members about their eradication program. Canva has many templates that can be useful when presenting information.

The communication piece should include:

What factors make the island’s ecosystems worth preserving (For example: aesthetics, tourism, endangered species)
How the introduced species negatively impacts those factors.
Why it is so important the community is involved in the eradication.
What skills and knowledge the community members can bring to the program.
A meeting time and place for the community to help develop the program (Community Centres are usually a good place for meetings).

Reflection

Spend a moment considering some other problems that could benefit from community-led solutions? This could include problems students have encountered at school, within their own homes and family units, in sporting clubs, and in the wider community.
Brainstorm a list of people who have the social influence to convince others to get involved in implementing solutions to the problems identified.

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?

Lord Howe Island - Community Led Biosecurity

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