Backyard Bush Blitz - Schoolyard Bush Blitz - Year 7

Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students will learn about the importance of insects by watching a clip and participating in a brainstorming activity. They will then conduct a schoolyard Bush Blitz, where they find insects and plants in the schoolyard and draw pictures of them. They will then research ways to attract insects and write a letter to the school management about implementing insect attracting initiatives.

Learning intentions:

Students understand the importance of insects
Students understand how to find and identify insects in the schoolyard
Students understand ways to attract insects.

21st century skills:

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Content descriptions:

Year 7 Science

Collaboratively and individually plan and conduct a range of investigation types, including fieldwork and experiments, ensuring safety and ethical guidelines are followed (ACSIS125)
Communicate ideas, findings and evidence based solutions to problems using scientific language, and representations, using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS133)

Syllabus outcomes: SC4-5WS, SC4-9WS.

General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.2.

Relevant parts of Year 7 achievement standards: Students plan fair experimental methods, identifying variables to be changed and measured. They communicate their ideas, methods and findings using scientific language and appropriate representations.

Topic: STEM, Sustainability, Biodiversity.

This lesson is part of the wider unit of work Backyard Bush Blitz – Year 7.

Time required: 75 mins.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – facilitate class discussion and letter writing

Resources required:

Device capable of presenting a video to the class
Bugs And Slugs ID Chart
Bush Blitz Information Sheet to show on the board
Student Worksheets – one copy per student
Tongs or any implements that can be used to turn over rocks while looking for insects – one per pair.

Keywords: Insects, field work, Bush Blitz, attracting insects.

Bush Blitz is Australia’s largest nature discovery program run by EarthWatch who kindly provided the images in these lessons. Thank you to the Ian Potter Foundation, John T Reid Charitable Trusts and The Myer Foundation for generously supporting the development of these lessons.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher Preparation

Learning intentions: Students will…

… understand the importance of insects
… understand how to find and identify insects in the schoolyard
… understand ways to attract insects.

Success criteria: Students can…

... explain the importance of insects
... conduct field research
... identify and draw insects
... write a persuasive and informative letter to share with an audience
... work collaboratively and independently.

Teacher content information: It is estimated there are 435,000-510,000 undiscovered species in Australia. 45% of the land and over 90% of our marine areas have never been comprehensively surveyed by scientists. This leaves huge gaps in our knowledge about Australia’s biodiversity and the impacts of land use. Bush Blitz is a project that aims to categorise as many plant and animal species as possible, in order to protect our biodiversity by fostering sustainable land management. It does this by sending scientists into the bush

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Student Worksheet

Thought Starter: Where would we be without insects?

Important Insects

1. After watching the clip, answer the following question:

What are three benefits of having insects in the environment?

ii.

iii.

2. After being shown the Bush Blitz insects, note down your favourite one and the characteristics you like the most.

Schoolyard Bush Blitz

The class will conduct their own Bush Blitz on the school grounds. You will work in pairs.

Each pair will need:

Paper
Pencils
Clipboard
Tongs or any implements that can be used to turn over rocks while looking for insects - one per pair.

For each insect you find:

1. Draw it and the plant the insect is located on or around
2. Note down any behaviours observed
3. Identify what type of insect it is, for example, ant, worm, spider, fly.
4. Identify the general type of plant/area that the insect is on or near, for example, grass, bushes, flowers, trees, soil.

For safety, use tongs or another implement to lift up

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Activity: Backyard Bush Blitz – Schoolyard Bush Blitz – Year 7