Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes – Part A: Learning about Country
20 minutes – Part B: What is a classification chart?
40 minutes – Part C: Make a dichotomous key
40 minutes – Part D: Locating fauna
30 minutes – Part E: Watch Regenerating Australia and conduct a regeneration brainstorm.

Part A: Learning about Country

Step 1.

Commence the lesson by activating some prior knowledge and facilitating a brief discussion about the meaning of regeneration and asking students to provide some examples and concepts they saw in the Regenerating Australia film that pertains to the importance of connecting to land and Country.

Step 2.

Present students with this video explaining What is Regeneration and use the password: EDU_RA to discuss the prompting questions below:

What does regeneration mean?
What is an example of an idea or concept that relates to regenerating land and Country?
What outcomes can we expect if we are more connected to land and Country?

Step 3.

Present the Indigenous Australia Art Print by David Foster and ask if students have ever taken part in a ‘Welcome to Country’ or ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ ceremony. Where and when did it occur? What did it mean to them?

Foster Type Indigenous Australia Art Print

You can prompt students to consider what is written in the artwork and why the artist has displayed the words across the map?

Step 4.

In the Welcome to Country section of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies website, Ngunnawal Elder Jude Barlow talks about the importance of Country and the difference between being welcomed to Country and an acknowledgment. Navigate the website as a class, and conduct a brief think, pair, share to discuss the meaning of Country and why it is essential to know and acknowledge the traditional land, language group, clan or nation, our home/school is located on.

Step 5.

Invite students to fill in on their Student Worksheet what Country is. You can also share with them the quotes about understanding Custodianship and what 'Country' means for First Nations people provided in the Teacher Content Information section of this worksheet.

Step 6.

Ask students to refer to the link of the map of Australia featured on the Aiatsis website. Invite students to use the space in their worksheet to write their own unique acknowledgment of Country. There is a useful template for planning an Acknowledgement of Country on the Creative Spirits website.

If you would like to further explore local Aboriginal Stories, knowledge and perspectives with your class by asking them if they know of a story of a creator spirit that shows up in their landscape? Or an Aboriginal Dreaming Story of how the lands and waterways were created? You could source a book, story, or painting from an Indigenous Australian person and share the story with the class, or invite your students to research a story. Once everyone has a story, invite them to pair up with another student in the class and allow some time for them to share the story they found with their partner. Pairs will then stop and swap to listen to the story their partner found.

Part B: What is a Classification Chart?

Step 1:

Let your students know that today they will be classifying things they see in nature but first need to understand the importance of classification. Imagine if you went to buy something from Coles and all the products were just randomly put on the shelves. It would take you days to find everything you needed! To make products easy to find, stores classify goods into categories such as dairy, meat, baking, cereals etc. Similarly, scientists classify living things into five kingdoms – Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protists and Monera. Each kingdom then has its own classification system in order to identify species. This makes it easier to name organisms and identify new species.

A simple type of classification system is known as a dichotomous key. Show the following key from the BioNinja website to explain how invertebrates (animals without backbones) can be classified.

Step 2.

Invite your students to form groups of 2 or 3 (max). Each group is given 10 different lego bricks (random colours, numbers, rows and columns) and they need to design a dichotomous key to classify them. Challenge them to think of different choices such as the example provided. Some questions and choices may include:

The width of the lego
How many rows the lego has: 1, 2, 3 etc
The colours: red, blue, yellow, green
The shape: square or rectangle.

Note: Students can sketch their dichotomous key on their worksheet.

Part C: Make a Dichotomous Key

Step 1.

Invite students to form groups of 2 or 3 (max). Then step out into the playground and ask students to collect ten leaves. The leaves they collect must have as much variety as possible as this will make the classification task more manageable.

Teacher Consideration: If your school is in an urbanised area or students find it challenging to locate and photograph animals in the schoolyard, suggest that students focus on birds and insects specifically. You can also encourage them to look for clues of animal life such as footprints, feathers, nests and droppings. Perhaps there are nocturnal animals in the area that leave their traces behind in the light of day! Remind students not to touch the 'animal clues' they find.

Note: Remind students not to move rocks, logs, interfere with animals' habitats etc. and ensure you explain the importance of not touching any animals (or 'animal clues').

Step 2.

When you are back in the classroom, provide each group with a sheet of butcher paper, a tape dispenser and a marking pen. Ask students to start thinking about how they might classify their leaves first and brainstorm some questions that help differentiate the leaves. Then, as a class, create a dichotomous key to classify the leaves students have collected.

This is a challenging task, and the students will need encouragement. Discuss differences like shape, texture and unique features. Ask students to draw and write on the Butcher’s paper with the marking pens. They can stick the leaves into position using sticky tape. Once finished, the Dichotomous Keys can be stuck up around the classroom.

Step 3.

Students can ‘test’ the classification keys by picking a leaf at random from the playground and starting at the top of the key, following down the key using observations about their leaf and seeing if they end up at a final leaf that is the same species as the one they picked. Discussions on the challenges of classifying can be very helpful in making students aware of scientific processes.

Part D: Locating Fauna

Step 1.

As a class, walk around the school looking for animals. As students spot different animals, try to capture them using an iPad or mobile phone.

Note: Ensure you remind students that there are habitats all around us when you are out in nature and some animals and insects do not like to be disturbed. Ask students to be cautious of animals, insects, rocks and logs and to refrain from moving and touching them.

Teacher Consideration: If your school is in an urbanised area or students are finding it challenging to locate and photograph animals in the schoolyard, suggest that students focus on birds and insects specifically. You can also encourage them to look for clues of animal life such as footprints, feathers, nests and droppings. Perhaps there are nocturnal animals in the area that leave their traces behind in the light of day! Remind students not to touch the 'animal clues' they find.

Step 2.

Once you've got enough animals to report on, step back into the classroom and draw up a table, as shown below. Refer back to the images you captured and work as a class to fill in the table.

Animal	A tally of times this species of animal was spotted	Brief description of the animal	Habitat (Where does the animal generally live)

Part E: Watch Regenerating Australia and Conduct a Regeneration Brainstorm.

Step 1.

As a class, watch the Regenerating Australia: The Land Where I Live excerpt from the Regenerating Australia film and ask your students to report back on some key learning questions and areas of interest. A great way to stimulate student learning is to conduct a See, Think, Wonder. You can do this by presenting the table below:

What do you SEE...	What do you THINK...	What do you WONDER...

Step 2.

Facilitate a brainstorming exercise with your class and workshop three ideas or concepts that would enable us to reintroduce original wildlife to the area to Regenerate Australia. Some examples could include native bee hotels, bird boxes, frog hotels, establishing native plants, or even mulching the gardens. This could be a good opportunity for the class to learn/talk about the biodiversity of their local ecology and why biodiversity is vital to healthy ecosystems and life. While facilitating the brainstorming exercise, ensure that students understand the importance of retaining nature in urban areas. Urban green spaces reduce heat and cooling costs, and enable children to play, laugh, breathe in the fresh air and explore flora and fauna. The Nature Conservancy offers some tips for growing a native Australian, urban garden and making your garden wildlife-friendly. Find these tips on the Nature Conservancy Australia website.

Students can explore further and learn how to create Habitat and build homes for native wildlife by visiting the Backyard Buddies website.

Some examples are listed on the site:

Grow plants indigenous to your area
Provide some open water
Provide shelter for wild visitors
Control pets and pests
Avoid using chemicals.

Reflection

Invite your students to reflect on the following:

What went well?
What could have been better?
What changes would you make to improve the lesson?

Differentiated Learning

Extension 1 – Invite students to research both the scientific and Indigenous names for the plants and/or animals encountered in this lesson.
Extension 2– Invite students to discover more about the significance of a traditional Aboriginal Welcome to Country. If your school can connect with local land councils and Elders, consider investing in an Elder to deliver a Welcome to Country and possibly a smoking ceremony at your school.
Extension 3 – Provide students with these links to the Regenerating Australia website where they can learn more about Healing Habitats, Wilding (bringing nature back into) Our Towns and Cities, and other stories of regeneration. Ask them to report back on an area of interest and reflect on why they find it interesting/inspiring.

Provisions for Learning Support – Students are placed into mixed ability groups so that those students requiring learning support are assisted by other peers.

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?

The Land Where I Live: Flora and Fauna Explorations

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