�•�Organise�a� class� display� in� your� school� or� local�community�library�on�an�environmental�theme.�This�display� could� consider� threatened� species,� their�habitats,�and�the�reasons�why�they�are�threatened.�The�display�could�also�include�pictures,�photographs,�and�stories�which�examine�how�students�feel�about�these�species,�what�the�class�is�doing�to�help�these�species� and� what� other� young� people� can� do� to�help.�If�the�display�is�at�a�local�library�the�librarians�could�also�place�useful�resource�books�close�by.

•�Organise�for�students�to�record�a�series�of�natural�noises�around�the�school�yard�and�put�these�sounds�together�to�create�a�song�or�sounds�tape.�This�could�be�done�with�recordings�if�equipment�allows,�or�by�picking�noises�to�be�replicated�by�students�through�singing�or�instruments.

Two recorders would be helpful for this activity including one that can be carried outside.

•� Write� songs� about� a� threatened� species� or� a�conservation� issue�of�concern.�Explore�a�range�of�musical�genres,�e.g.�jazz,�rock,�bush�ballads.

•� Make� rubbings,� casts� or� pressings� of� natural�surfaces�that�are�important�habitats�and�compare�the�differences.�Explore�why�some�of�those�differences�exist,�e.g.� tree�bark,� rocks,�shells,� leaves.�Explore�the� reasons�why�differences�exist� in� texture,� form�and� permeability,� for� example.� Use� the� rubbings�or� natural� items� and� create� a� collage� that� would�include�a�range�of�different�textures�and�colours�that�exist�in�the�school�yard�or�in�a�natural�environment�of�choice.

•�Create�nature� faces�using�beach-wash�material,�pieces� from� a� natural� environment� of� choice� or�with�fruit�/�vegetables�and�seeds�in�the�classroom.�Describe�the�colours�and�textures�of� the�materials�being�used.�Name�the�faces.�Take�photographs�of�all�the�faces�created�by�the�class.�Put�all�the�natural�objects�back�where�they�came�from�before�leaving.�Once�back�in�the�classroom,�and�with�photographs�returned,� write� about�making� the� faces� or� draft� a�story�about�the�faces�that�have�been�created.�The�students�could�create�a�collage�of�the�photographed�faces.

Be careful when displacing objects in a natural environment: try to minimise the impacts and hazards.

•�Design�a�stencil�which�could�be�painted�on�road�drains�in�your�area.�Brainstorm�a�suitable�message�or�run�a�competition.�Once�the�final�design�is�agreed�

upon,� seek� permission� from� your� local� council� to�spray� paint� the� stencil� messages� on� the� drains�around�your�school,�e.g.�Drains�to�the�Coast.

•�Visit�a�nearby�beach�or�sand�pit�and�encourage�students� to� sculpture� sand� in� the� shape� of� a�threatened�species,�marine�animal�or�their�favourite�beach�scene.�Ask�students�to�express�their�feelings�about� the� sand� creation� and� the� life� forms� they�represent.� Organise� a� sand� sculpting� competition�in� the� theme�of� threatened�species�and/or�marine�animals.

•�Make�an�alphabet�poster�series�/�booklet�featuring�paintings�or�lino�prints�about�threatened�species�or�native�animals.�Each�student�could�create�one�letter�and�the�alphabet�could�be�placed�in�the�classroom,�school,�or�community�library.

•� Dramatise� and� choreograph� a� performance� for�theatre,� mime,� puppet� theatre� or� dance,� which�highlights�the�plight�of�a�threatened�species.�Present�your�performance�publicly.�Interview�members�of�the�audience�after�the�show�to�find�out�what�they�thought�were�the�important�messages�of�your�performance.

•� Prepare� sketches� of� different� Australian� natural�environments,�e.g.�rivers,�coasts,�forests,�arid�lands�and�deserts.�Prepare�a�series�of�‘wanted’�messages�for� their�preservation�and�conservation.�A� ‘wanted’�poster� could� resemble� an� old� cowboy� poster� or�express� the� needs� of� this� habitat� to� survive.� Old�wildlife� calendars� and� posters� could� be� useful�prompts.

Threatened�Species�and�the�Arts�-�Activities

•�Conduct� research�about� the�natural� and� cultural�history�of�the�area�on�which�the�school�is�built�and�the�region�where�most�of�the�students�live.�Enable�students�to�climb�to�the�highest�safe�vantage�point�in�the�school.�Ask�them�to�sit,�close�their�eyes�and�imagine�what�the�scene�would�have�looked�like�200�years�ago.�Open�their�eyes�and�draw,�sketch�or�paint�the�imagined�scene.�List�the�animals�and�plants�that�have� disappeared.�Write� a� short� poem� or� caption�about�their�disappearance.

•� Create� silhouettes� of� a� range� of� threatened�species.� Draw� the� natural� setting� where� these�species� belong.� Draw� posters� which� show� where�the�silhouettes�would�live�in�the�scene�and�present�the� posters� to� the� class� asking� students� to� guess�which�animal�goes�where.�Display�the�posters�in�a�communal�are�such�as�the�school�library,�the�school�hall�or�a�local�community�library.

•� Make� sock� puppets� or� other� puppet� characters�which�represent�a�threatened�mammal,�bird,�reptile�or�amphibian�or�plant�species.�Run�a�‘News�Bulletin’�on�TV� in�which� difference� puppets� interview�each�other�about�life.�This�could�follow�a�typical�TV�news�format�or�be�a�series�of�News�Flashes.�The�students�could� also� do� this� without� puppets.� Ask� them� to�dissect�the�News�Bulletin�and�create�characters�and�stories�about�threatened�species�to�fit�the�format.

•� Make� badges� which� display� slogans� concerned�with�preserving�and�conserving�specific�animal�and�plant�species.�These�slogans�could�describe�things�which� could� be� done� or� perhaps�what� should� not�be� done� to� save� these� species,� e.g.� ‘Support� the�comeback� of� the�Numbat’.� If� you� like� the� slogans�created�by�the�class,�why�not�try�to�get�one�printed�up�as�a�sticker�or�as�badges�and�sell�them�to�raise�funds�for�a�favourite�threatened�species.

•�Make�a�display�board�of�vegetation�changes�from�pre-European� settlement� to� now.� Discuss� major�changes�people�have�made�to�the�vegetation�cover�and�write�a�caption�for�the�display�board.

•�Paint�a�picture�or�create�a�wall�mural�in�the�school�yard,� local� bus� shelter,� on� a� stobie� pole� or� local�community� building.� Seek� permission� from� the�relevant�authority.

•� Make� a� papier-mâché� likeness� of� a� threatened�animal.�Exhibit�it�at�school�with�a�description�of�the�animal�and�where�it�lives.

•� Collect� Australian� stamps� featuring� plants� and�animals.�Research�the�names�of�each�animal�or�plant�shown� (see� if� students�can�find�out� their� scientific�names�as�well.)�Classify�the�species�in�a�number�of�different�ways�(e.g.�wetland�birds,�domestic�animals,�

animals� of� the� forest,� species� found� in�Australia).�Mount� them� on� different� pieces� of� paper� with� the�appropriate� heading� and� display� them� around� the�classroom.�Using�what� they� have� seen,� the� class�could�design�some�stamps�of�their�own.

•�Using�colour�illustrations�of�Australian�wildlife�(e.g.�from�a�calendar)�as�a�guide,�have�students�make�their�own�‘Colourful�Australian�Species�Art�Gallery’�using� crayons,� paints,� chalk,� material,� uncooked�noodles,�etc.�Display�these�pieces�of�art�in�the�school�foyer�or�along�an�appropriate�corridor�for�all�to�see.�Place� them� in� an� ‘Art�Gallery’� room� in� the� school�and�charge�a�small�entry�fee�to�visiting�parents�and�friends.

•�Make�a�series�of�mobiles�from�student�drawings,�or�pictures�from�magazines.�Display�them�showing�various�species�and�what�is�threatening�them.

•�Make�a�flag�featuring�a�locally�threatened�species�or�displaying� the�words� ‘September� is�Biodiversity�Month’�and�fly�it�during�September.�Large�cardboard,�wooden� boards,� or� fabric� lengths� could� be� used�for� the�designs.�Find�examples�of�other�banners� /�flags�and�discuss� the� importance�of�simplicity�and�features� which� portray� the� information� purely� to�catch�the�eye.

•�Plan�and�design�how�your�school�will�look�during�Biodiversity�Month�in�September�each�year.

•�Collect�all�safe�to�handle�waste�from�your�school�and�build�an�enormous�Junk�Sculpture�of�a�threatened�species�(plant�or�animal).

•�Many�houses,�schools,�and�businesses�have�large�‘wheelie’�bins.�Make�up�a� large�stencil�suitable� for�either� the� sides� of� the� front� of� these� bins� with� a�design�of�a�locally�or�well-known�threatened�species.�Seek� permission� to� use� the� stencil� and� paint� the�threatened� species� on� any� number� of� these� bins.�They�will� stand�out� and�make�a� fine�display�each�time�the�bins�are�placed�out�on�the�footpath� to�be�collected.�One�stencil�could�announce� ‘September�is�Biodiversity�Month’.

• Find five different animals that live in or regularly visit the school yard or a natural environment of your choice. Watch each of these residents for a period of time. Ask the students to imagine what they the students and the area around them might look like to the animals being watched. Draw pictures of what these views might look like, e.g. a bird might look down, whereas an ant would look up. Ask students to consider what an ordinary day would be like for these residents and what the highlights of their days would be. Consider what it might be like if the students and animals changed places. How might both the students and animals describe walking a day in each other’s shoes. Express this story through music, poetry, visual images or performance.

• Write a series of different plays or skits with environmental themes. For example explore the plight of animals, the life of different animals or environmental issues that may be addressed by students. Explore a particular issue that means something to the students. Determine ways they could go about taking action. Consider different forms of drama, e.g. melodrama, thriller, courtroom drama, adventure, suspense, silent action, mime, action.

• Use a story starter such as ‘I woke up inside a bilby’s burrow and ….’ then ask students to write a story.

• Produce a threatened species newspaper that may include editorials, news, arts, cartoons, sports. Students could write their own articles, advertisements and letters to the editor about habitat and species loss due to settlement or issues in their own school yard. Using a range of formats highlight the major changes that have occurred and the dramatic re-thinking that is required. The students might also look at good news stories and the lighter side.

• Locate rocks or large pebbles. Create pet rocks based on threatened species. Create a story about the family of the pet species.

• Read ‘The Lorax’ by Dr Seuss. In small groups, ask students to discuss what life would have been like for the Humming Fish, Swomee Swans and Brown Barbaloots before and after the factory was constructed.

• Write about threatened species by using a range of different types of poetry, e.g. limerick, sonnet, ode, cinquain, ballad, haiku, triplet, couplet, broken line, circular poem. A cinquain poem is a five lined

poem which has: a first line of one word naming something; a second line of two words describing it; a third line of three words describing action; a fourth line of four words describing it by phrase; and a fifth line of one word finishing the poem.

• Fishers are famous for telling tales about the one that got away and many older anglers tell of times when there were more fish. Students may have relatives and friends who fish and tell stories. By recording some of these stories, students can create an oral history of fishing. Ask how the fish catch has changed over the years? Equally, those students who do not have access to fishers could ask why their relatives have chosen not to fish, or what fish they like to eat and how they like it cooked.

• Observe some animals in a natural environment of choice, in the school yard, in books or on posters. Look at the adaptations these animals have developed and describe some of these adaptations and their advantages. Imagine what life could be like on other planets in and out of our solar system. Consider what kind of adaptations the animals on these planets need to find food, move, hide from danger, breathe and communicate with each other.

• Divide into groups of 10. Choose an object from the natural environment to be described by one child in each group who is blind-folded. Pass the object to each of the other children in the group who each briefly describe a different aspect of it. Students should be encouraged to describe the items, using a different description each time, using a range of sens, e.g. touch, smell. This works particularly well with live animals that are used to being handled, e.g. from the local wildlife carers or Zoo. After everyone has an opportunity to describe the item the blind-folded students try to guess the item.

Threatened Species and English - Activities

• Design a safe sensory trail around the school and / or classroom. Students could be led around the trail blind-folded by another student who they would have to trust for this exercise. Encourage the students to be quiet, listen to the natural and other sounds around them and to feel different surfaces. Students can describe their experiences on the trail. Investigate if there are any established sensory trails near your school, e.g. Botanic Gardens. If there are, plan a visit to learn more about them.

• Write a hello-goodbye poem which refers to the dangers that some of the animals and habitats face in the natural environment. For example:Hello Kakadu,Goodbye mining,Hello… Goodbye…

• Make a cooperative class story about a human community living a long time ago where you now live and compare it to how you live in this area today. Include a focus on land usage, how the native vegetation was and is regarded and effects on habitats and species.

• Collect state and local newspapers. Find an article about threatened animal and plant species and related issues. Create a file and keep a journal documenting your thoughts and ideas.

• Go to the library and make a list of factual and fiction books featuring threatened species. Sort your information into categories, make connections between your findings and share them with an audience.

• Interview a variety of people and ask about their involvement with or awareness of threatened species. Using the interviews, make a display for Threatened Species Month in September to display in the school or local community library.

• Read Aboriginal Dreaming Stories which involve species that are now threatened , e.g. Thukeri Tiddalick the Frog. Discuss the stories and explore ways in which Aboriginal people interacted with them.

Contact the Aboriginal Education Resource Centre in your State.

The Library can provide information about recommended references.

• Write creative stories depicting humans as a threatened pant or animal. Ask them to describe how pollution, salinity, recreation activities or other elements might affect their daily lives and hopes.

• Write a story about the world without a particular species. Might the extinction of one species affect other species? Discuss.

• Design a game such as snakes and ladders in which the penalty / bonus squares address some of the issues faced by threatened species and the ways in which they can be saved.

• Design a quiz about threatened species, e.g. Trivial Pursuit, Temptation, Hidden Word puzzle, or a Crossword.

• Write a story about what you think the natural world will be like in the year 2100. Will there be less or more threatened species? What will the world be like? How many people will there be? How many species would have become extinct?

• Watch a video about threatened species and write a film review about the film’s content and the way the film got its message across.

Appropriate videos can be purchased from the ABC Bookshop, borrowed from libraries or rented from video stores.

• Use starting points such as photographs, poems or stories about threatened species to ask students to express ideas and feelings.

• Discuss why a person might want to make a film, radio or television program, take photographs or write newspaper articles about threatened species. What techniques would they use to interest their audiences? In small groups draft scripts for these different mediums and present them to the class.

• Write a creative story depicting you as a threatened species. Describe how pollution, introduced predators, industry, people’s everyday actions, plants, habitat loss and other animals might affect you.

• Read ‘How the Elephant got its Trunk’ by Rudyard Kipling. Devise a similar set of stories about native wildlife, e.g. ‘How the Bilby got its Black and White Tail’, ‘How the Numbat got her Stripes’, ‘Why the Brush-tailed Bettong carries grass with its tail’.

One excellent way of helping threatened species is to raise money and donate it to groups actively working to save them. This might be a local group, one elsewhere in your state, or one dealing with a particular species in another state. Such money is frequently needed by action groups for equipment (spades, forks, fencing wire, tools, microscopes); materials such as copying paper, collecting bags and tapes; operating expenses (phone calls, photocopying, internet access, travel); expert advice, and sometimes pieces of land to make nature reserves. Members of voluntary groups pay for these things out of their own pockets, but they can achieve more and in saving a chosen species or habitat if others support them with donations.

• As a class adopt a species through WWF-Australia or the Zoo and raise funds through stalks, threatened species bingo, threatened species lotto, or a nature book ‘read-a-thon’.

• Put school projects about threatened species on display in a hall or classroom and seek donations / entry fees from people invited to see it.

• Design and make a money box in the shape of a locally threatened species. Make a small leaflet explaining the plight of the species to go with the money box and show it to people. Collect donations in the money box and either use them to help bandicoots in your area, or give them to a group who are working to save threatened species in another area.

• Make one or more biscuit cutters in the shape of native species. From a biscuit mixture cut out as many shapes as you can. Either give the biscuits away to friends explaining the importance of each species they are eating, or sell the biscuits to raise money.

• Ask students to host a ‘Video Night’ and show friends some videos about Australia’s native wildlife or watch a favourite film. Ask them for donations towards a specific project.

• Ask students to make or get posters of threatened species and have them placed in local shop windows – ask the school’s local paper to feature a story about them. Make available a money box at each location to collect donations.

• Present some of the plays / songs /poems that have been designed in earlier activities at a school assembly and charge an entry fee or ask for donations.

• Make items in art and craft lessons and sell them at a school fete or run a Threatened Species raffle during the term. Donate some of the money raised to a local or favourite group or project to help save threatened species. Make sure ticket purchasers know where the prizes come from, and what the money is going to be used for.

• On Threatened Species Day (September 7) draw a large picture of a locally or well-known threatened species on the ground inside the school or get permission to do it in a space adjacent to a supermarket car park. Explain what the class is doing and seek donations of coins to cover the picture from students or people passing by.

• Set up a small plant nursery and grow some native plants, particularly native grasses and shrubs local to your area. Sell them and donate some of the proceeds to saving threatened species.

• Organise a ‘Walk for Wildlife’. Make up sponsorship cards and get the class (and friends) to be involved. Why not walk from the school (or Town Hall) to your nearest national park, or drive to the park and walk around its permitter or a section of it.

Fund-raising and Action - Activities

• Design a fitness program using a series of animal actions, e.g. kangaroo jumps, cockatoo wing-flaps, snake wriggles, curlew walk.

• Set an orienteering course with ten different markers that are in an environmental theme, e.g. ten different native plants, ten recycle bins around the school yard, or a natural environment of choice.

• Explore a range of outdoor recreational activities, e.g. canoeing, bush walking, camping or bird watching. Develop a list of agreed codes of conduct for participating in such outdoor activities. Ask students how they feel when they spend time outside in a natural environment and how they feel about green space. Do they have green space in their neighbourhood?

• Propose changes to local open spaces to improve their usefulness for threatened animal species.

• Hold a threatened species Olympics where the games, teams and prizes are based on threatened species, e.g. a ‘Threatened Species Obstacle Course’ or ‘Snakes Alive’ where each team is provided with three long streamers, at least 5 cm across and 1 m long, cut from large strips of recycled fabric, e.g. bed sheets. Streamers are stapled or sewn together at the top. The first team to plait their streamer from top to bottom wins.

• Divide students into small groups and allocate an animal to physically create using their combined bodies, e.g. crab, whale, turtle, frog. Ask them to move around in that form.

• Ask students to hold hands to form a ring. Place a few people inside the ring, they are the tuna and a dolphin. Blind-fold one student to become the dolphin. The larger group are the land surrounding the sea. The dolphin must use sonar to find the tuna. The dolphin calls out ‘dolphin’ and the tuna must reflect the sound back by calling ‘tuna’. The dolphin must use these clues to locate the stationary tuna. If the dolphin is about to hit the hand-holding circle the students call out ‘land’ to warn it. Continue until all the tuna are caught.

• Play ‘Feral Cat Chasey’. All the players except one form into pairs of Australian nocturnal animals and go away for 2 minutes to practice their individual recognition calls. One player becomes the feral cat, who starts off in the middle of the playing space. The animal partners separate and go to either end of the playing space. When players, including the feral cat, put on blind-folds, they try to find their own

partner by call alone, before the cat finds them. Each time the cat moves the player must ‘meow’ so that others are aware of where the cat is. The cat catches prey by placing a hand on the player’s head, who must then retire and leave the playing space. The game ends when the cat has caught 4 animals or an agreed number. Discuss which animals were caught first and what the students feel were the reasons for that.

• Play a camouflage game using coloured toothpicks or paper snippets. Place the objects on a variety of different coloured surfaces. Players are given two minutes to detect ‘species’ (each species is a different colour). Discuss why some animals can be hard to find.

• Explore the Occupational Health and Safety issues related to the various rabbit control methods, or tracking methods of vulnerable animal species.

• Draw safety signs about our responsibilities as bushwalkers, trail bike riders, swimmers, fishers and divers.

• Brainstorm a list of rules needed for our interactions with rivers, creeks, beaches, arid areas, National Parks, and the bush. Discuss feelings and ideas.

• Identify physical and aesthetic aspects of the local community that affect threatened species’ health and wellbeing.

• Consider how climate change, and changes in the ozone layer, will impact on the health of threatened species. Propose ways to reduce the impact of climate change, and protect and maintain the ozone layer

• Describe how chemical use can change the ecosystem and influence the health of threatened species. Identify potentially dangerous substances (petrol, poisons, gas) and explain their effects on threatened species.

Threatened Species, Health and Physical Education - Activities

• Find five different trees and / or bushes in the school yard or natural environment of your choice. As a group discuss how you could measure the heights of these trees, what is their height and why you think they are different heights.

• Use the names of some of Australia’s threatened species or a conservation message as the basis for cracking a series of codes, e.g. vowels and consonants correspond with their number in the alphabet e.g. Mala; 13, 1, 12, 1. Create coded messages to use during Biodiversity Month.

• Find an ant and follow it back to its nest. Find one of the ant trails coming from the nest. Map this trail, using graph paper and landmarks. Encourage students to create their own legend of natural and built landmarks. Describe how far the trail goes and investigate what the ants are doing on the trail.

• Explore the natural shapes and colours found in a number of natural objects or a natural environment of your choice. Explore the many different shapes that can be found. Consider what might explain this range of shapes e.g. different leaves. Discover the many different colours and shades of colour that can be found. Make a collage that shows the graduation of colours found across the spectrum.

• Collect items from a natural setting, e.g. stones, leaves, shells (and replace them after use). Have students allocate a value in dollars and cents to these items. Rank or prioritise the items by value. Discuss how students decided which objects were more valuable. Why do people rarely consider animals and plants in dollar terms or of little monetary value? Do they need to be given a monetary value? What are the chances of survival of a species that is given a low monetary value? Ask students to give a value to their pet, their neighbour’s pet and a bird in their school yard. Ask students to share their list with other students. Ask students why they decided on their lists.

• Conduct a survey at the local shopping centre to establish the level of public concern about threatened species and their survival. Identify which species people consider to be under the greatest threat, the reasons why they think these are the most threatened and the strategies they believe should be employed to ensure their survival. How many of the species are Australian species?

• Provide students with some pictures of threatened species. Ask students to draw a line through the picture on its line of symmetry.

• Ask each student in the class to collect the litter from their recess and lunch for the day Weight the contents. Multiply this number by 5 to obtain the weekly waste. Multiply the weekly waste amount by 4 to obtain the monthly amount. Multiply the monthly amount by 12 to obtain a yearly amount. Ask the students to consider the impacts of littering upon the environment. How might their actions affect threatened species and their habitats?

• Visit an area of natural vegetation in your local area. In small groups (without trampling the vegetation) plot the distribution of plant species in the area on a map. You do not have to be able to tell what each species is called, but just that they are different. Combine the group’s findings on a wall chart in the class. Discuss strategies by which members of the local community could become involved in ensuring the continued survival of this area.

• Ask students with a breeding female cat, how often it has kittens and how many in each litter. Calculate how many cats there would be after 1, 2, 5 and 10 years if they all survived. Discuss desexing of cats. Find out from a local vet how much it costs. What would be a sensible policy for a town or suburb to have in regard to the keeping and controlling of cats? Ask your local council for information on responsible cat ownership. How many families have allocated play space for their cats inside the house?

• Some wading birds migrate from Siberia to Australia each year. Map their route and calculate how many different countries they visit, the distances between countries and the distance of their total annual journey.

Threatened Species and Maths – Activities

• Sample pond life in a natural waterway or school pond. At different locations in the waterway push a mud-scooper into the pond bottom to catch the creatures in the sub-strata. Test the water temperature at varying depths and sample the life that exists at each temperature zone with a dip-net. Look at the differences in life between these sample groups. Classify ways that creatures move: rowing, wriggling, swimming.

• List a range of cleaning products currently found in students’ homes and investigate the chemicals listed on the labels. Ask the students to determine the possible impacts on these products on waterways by researching the listed ingredients.

• Explore the impacts of water pollution, in particular oil spills, on the natural environment. Ask students to develop an experiment that shows how dispersants work. How could an oil spill be stopped from spreading? What techniques are currently being used?

• Ask guests to visit your class or school to speak on an environment science or technologies topic.

• Take hoops to the beach, a natural environment of choice, or the school yard. In a number of groups carefully use the hoops to conduct spot searches along transects through varying habitats. Ask students to look a the number of different species inside the hoop. Discover what the biggest animal is in the hoop and how many there are. Are there any differences in the size or numbers of species between hoops? If there are any differences, how can the students explain this?

• Construct identification keys by using animals located in the school yard, a natural environment of choice or in books / posters / internet. A key uses the similarities and differences between species to guide others through the key to identify a species. 1. If the animal has fur go to step 2. If the animal has scales, go to step 3. etc.

• In student pairs walk slowly on the school oval or in a natural environment of choice, step by step, calling out and recording what animals / plants / rocks / soils are around each foot step as it is made. Compare the findings over 50m, 100m etc.

• Set up an aquarium / terrarium in the classroom and ask students to monitor the changes over time. Information cards could be made describing its residents. There are many different ways of making these structures to explore, the students could attempt to use recycled material.

• As a class, visit a sewerage plant. Find out whether there are any noticeable or hidden impacts where the treated sewerage is released into the natural environment. List marine species that might be affected by this outfall.

• Watch a tree for a period of time. List all the visitors to the tree, humans and other animals. Discuss the many different visitors seen and what those visitors might otherwise do if this tree was not there.

• Locate bare, un-vegetated areas and picture these revegetated. Describe and list the differences and consider the effect of revegetation on threatened species. Discuss ways and means of revegetating cleared land. Are there other ways of improving the area as a home for threatened species, e.g. nest boxes? Discuss and list the reasons for the need for revegetation programs, now and in the future.

• Habitats can be susceptible to damage and threats. As a class consider areas where young seedlings and trees could be susceptible to damage. Discuss and write down how such damage could be avoided.

• Discuss the effect lush weed growth has on endangered plants.

• Ask students to select five different sites where they think water will soak into the ground. At each site firmly push one end of an open-ended can into the ground. Ask students to pour a measured amount of water into the can at the sites. Measure the time it takes for the water to filter into the soil. Graph the results. Encourage students to interpret the results and to suggest why the water is absorbed into the soil at varying rates. Repeat the activity in damp areas and care these results with the original ones.

Students could try it on concrete, soil with no vegetation, a grassed area, and soil with vegetation.

Threatened Species, Science and Technology - Activities

• Visit the Museum and search for specimens of threatened and extinct species amongst the collections. Describe the specimens and why they disappeared.

• Join the first Australia-wide echidna survey. Report any sightings to Pelican Lagoon Wildlife and Research Centre, c/- Post Office, Penneshaw, SA 5222. Tel: (08) 8553 7174.

• Make a viewing device to help students look at the underwater world. Students will need:A plastic drink bottleScissorsCellophane, strong plastic, or a clear plastic bagLarge container of water

Method:1. Cut the bottom out of the bottle2. Tightly stretch the plastic over the bottom of the bottle3. Place the rubber band over the sides of the bottle to keep the plastic in place4. Remove the lid of the bottle5. Check the water tightness of the viewer by looking at an object in a container of water6. Visit the beach and take the viewer. Look in rock pools at plants and animals7. When students have finished using the viewer, store it away. If the class does not want to keep the viewers make sure they recycle as much of the viewer as they can

• Research how foxes threaten Australia’s native wildlife. Ask students to keep a class register of any foxes seen in their area. Report them to the Local Council, and particularly any locations where you think there are active fox dens.

• Consult the Gould League’s book on Nesting boxes for Australian wildlife. Choose a nest style that is suitable for animals in the school’s local area. Make some as a class project or raise some money and pay someone else to make them for you. Place them in suitable positions and watch them carefully, evicting any unwanted box users like starlings or bees that are not native to the area.

• Collect pictures featuring a range of plants and animals and divide them into two groups, those that are native to Australia and those that have been introduced from overseas (try to find out in which country they occur naturally.)

• Investigate technologies used in tracking vulnerable or endangered animals. Invent a new theoretical device to track a native species, e.g. bilby. Discuss the ethical environmental and economic considerations which need to be taken into account when devising technologies to monitor animals

species. Give details of any technique, technology or system in use today. Report on findings.

• Create an invention to eradicate foxes. Individually, in pairs, or in groups: design and research inventions; draw the model to scale; keep a diary documenting the process used; and list people and other resources consulted. Share inventions, describe the working model and the processes used to develop the model. Encourage students to pose questions after each presentation.

• Talk about ways of securing ownership, marketing, promoting and publicising a product. Design and make ethical products that promote the plight of vulnerable, rare and endangered species.

• Discuss the need for industry and entrepreneurs to produce innovative and exciting items and systems to help conserve and preserve habitats and homes of native endangered animals.

• Look at available technology being used in solving endangered animal and plant species issues.

• Get involved in a local community environmental monitoring project or conduct regular surveys of native species, particularly birds on your school grounds or the local area.

• Select a political or social issue that affects a community’s ability to access technology and support at either a local, state, national or global level to preserve and monitor threatened species. Formulate questions for an enquiry into the issue.

• Develop a class code of conduct that will be followed when exploring a natural environment of choice or when handling natural objects. This could address issues of respect, information gathering, group dynamics, and care. The code of conduct could be illustrated and displayed in the classroom.

• Design a trail around the school yard or classroom, using live things as markers, e.g. plants, bird’s nest, oval, goldfish. Devise descriptions of how to get to each object, using directional words to describe their location. Describe the item without using the object’s name. Highlight the markers with tape and using students’ descriptions, aim to direct others close by.

• Design a listening trail of animal and other environmental sounds where there are five different listening posts. In student pairs spend two minutes at each location recording what is heard. Discuss this with your partners after the trail is complete. Try to remember the marked posts and sounds that were identified.

• Create a five star garden for birds on the school grounds. A five star garden has 1) at least three different types of native flowering bushes, 2) a highly visible safe place for birds to bathe, 3) at least one tree over 2.5 metres tall (you could also consider a nest box), 4) a litter space with earth, rocks or wood and leaf litter in which birds scratch for insects, and 5) an area of grass or short plants.

• Make a pressed plant collection of 10 weeds found in the school yard or a natural location of choice. As a class devise a system that will ensure native plants are not damaged by mistake. Use a map of the location and highlight areas from which the weeds were collected. Consider: Are there any patterns of weed invasion associated with the places where the weeds occur, particularly in a natural site?

• Ask students to keep an impact diary that records their activities over a two-day period. Reflect on these activities and identify the actions that might have detrimental effects on threatened species. Ask

students to look closely at these activities and list ways people can reduce their impacts.• Prepare a one year plan which the students will implement to change their personal behaviour as an urban dweller impacting on one or more issues / problems related to threatened species. Several Australian Government fact sheets are available to help you do this.

• In association with an excursion to the beach or a natural environment of choice create a class interpretive guide. Each student might contribute a page to the guide. The guide could consist of beach-washed specimens, pressed plant life (algae/plant), photographs (either by students or cut from suitable magazines / old calendars) or hand drawn pictures. The class should agree on the other information to be included, such as biological information and creative written pieces. Guides could be built up on future excursions or produced for different habitats or ecosystems.

• Conduct a litter clean-up in the school yard or on a beach (gloves, bags and tools are essential). Before throwing away lay out the rubbish on a plastic ground sheet and conduct a rubbish audit. List the rubbish items. Look at the items that could have been recycled and also the items that could cause damage to animals once they reach a waterway or ocean. Sort the rubbish in to different categories. How many plastic bags? How many cigarette butts? How many cans? and so on. Ask students to consider the effects of littering on the marine environment and ask them to offer solutions to the problem. Draw posters for the school that warn other students about the potential harm of these litter items and encourage them to place litter in a bin.

• Identify a range of natural noises in the school yard or a natural environment of choice, in pairs track the source of these noises, e.g. bird calls.

• Discuss the roles and rules of National Parks. Are there any conservation reserves close to the school? Visit if possible. If not visiting, research the

Threatened Species and Society and the Environment - Activities

park to identify when and why it was declared and describe its features.

• Research and report on how human activity in rural areas has affected the life on one threatened native animal species in Australia.

• Ask students to interview their family or a trusted adult about their environmental concerns and actions related to a threatened species. Draft the questions and in the process talk about question design, e.g. the order of questions, should the question be open or closed.

• On a class visit to a natural environment of choice observe visitors and identify the threats caused by people who visit natural places. Why do the visitors go there and what do they get out of it? What harm could they be causing? Discuss the visitor management that might be needed in a place like a National Park.

• Ask guest speakers to visit your class or school to discuss threatened species or a biodiversity topic.

• Determine the impact of introduced predators such as foxes and cats on threatened species in Australia. In what ways are introduced predators different to natural predators such as birds of prey? Discuss.

• Ask students to consider the ways they can live an environmentally sustainable life. What positive actions can students take and how can these actions help to save threatened species?

• Brainstorm ways threatened species are promoted, e.g. bilby Easter buns, Easter chocolates, in books and on posters. What are the messages that are being communicated, and why?

• Visit a zoo, museum or sanctuary on a class excursion. Many of these places have their own threatened species educational packages which teachers can order and use on their visit.

• Conduct a group discussion or debate about an issue relevant to threatened species. Extract one such issue from the school’s local community and explore what different views people might hold in relation to the issue. Formally or informally debate or discuss these views. Students groups must provide a convincing argument regardless of the student’s individual viewpoint, e.g. that all cats should be desexed except those belonging to a recognised breeder.

• Work in pairs and spread out in the classroom, or in a natural environment of choice, to look at natural objects. Define a small area to focus on, e.g. rock pool, puddle, tree, with each person finding an animal or plant. Each of the students describes their specimen without showing their partners what it is. The students must not refer to colour, size or precise location (unless this is a skill the teacher would like

to develop) as all of these characteristics might change in time. Once the students have described the natural object, ask their partners to guess it. Have the students explain why they chose that item. Swap roles with the partner.

• Create a threatened species time capsule. Each student should choose an item and explain why they have chosen it. The contents of the time capsule could be displayed at the school or community library accompanied with the explanations to share the information.

• Compare a photograph of a ploughed paddock with one covered with native vegetation. Ask students to write a story imagining their life as a wallaby, bettong, or bilby as the vegetation was cleared to make way for a crop of wheat.

• Your students are ecological detectives looking closely at a series of natural objects or a scene from a natural environment of choice. They can look but not collect. Ask them to find and record the name of:a living thing that is growingsomething that was once alivesomething that has undergone changesomething that is impossible to countsomething you cannot photographsomething you have never seen beforea thing that is foreign to the ecosystema natural thing that can be used as a toola thing that might be food for plants and / or animalssomething that will not be here in 100 yearssomething that will be here in 100 years

• Create a story or adventure that includes all of these objects. These objects can be replaced or added to indefinitely. This framework can also be built on to create a treasure hunt.

• Many different people work to save threatened species. Some of these people are employed and some work as volunteers. Ask each student to investigate the role of one of these persons. They could find out what qualifications were needed, where they might work, what special equipment they might need and what are the good parts and not so good parts of working in this kind of role, etc. If interviews were possible or a speaker could visit the class that would be excellent.

• Discuss why it is important to save threatened species in Australia. How many social, economic and biological reasons or benefits are provided by threatened species and their habitats.

• Everyone is entitled to voice their concerns and hopes for threatened species to their elected

government. Ask students to brainstorm and research the ways citizens can express their concerns to decision-makers. As a class decide one method you might try, e.g. write a letter or petition and act on it for a threatened species or related issue.

• Equity between generations is an important argument for the protection of threatened species. Should future generations experience the same variety of species on earth as we do? Conduct interviews or discussions with family members and friends to provide ideas. What has disappeared in your grandparents’ time?

• Explore the school grounds and make a list of the places in which creatures live. Describe what might happen to these creatures if humans changed their habitat. In groups prepare a plan of changes to the school grounds that would encourage more creatures to live there.

• Read the Fact Sheets included in this education kit. Use this information and other research to construct lists of animals and plants that are classified as ‘extinct’ or ‘threatened’ – which includes endangered, vulnerable and rare. Discuss the reasons why some animals have become extinct or are threatened with extinction. Select one endangered creature and draw up a plan that students believe could ensure its long term survival.

• Ask the class to look for examples of where ‘progress’ associated with economic and technological factors caused environmental change in the school’s local area or in an urban centre nearby. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of this ‘progress’ for creatures now classed as ‘endangered’. Contact other people for different perspectives.

• Locate on a map of Australia each of Australia’s World Heritage Areas. Research and report on the threatened and endangered species in: Kakadu National Park; Great Barrier Reef; Lord Howe Island; Tasmanian Wilderness; Uluru National Park; Wet Tropics of Queensland and the Willandra Lakes Region.

• Research the threats to endangered animal and plant species. As a class discuss which issues are most important to draw to the attention of others. On an exterior wall of the school prepare a class mural that highlights the issues identified by the class.

• Contact a representative from the school’s local council, a conservation group, residents association, charity organisation or other interest group and find out what they consider to be the most effective ways to make the opinions of the class on threatened species know to their organisation. Record and collate this information. Use the information and get involved.

• As a class prepare a draft strategy entitled ‘Moving

into Action’ which outlines how students can become more involved in making decisions about local issues relevant to threatened species.

• Discuss how vegetation was managed prior to European settlement. Relate the discussion to reasons why there is a need for revegetation projects now and in the future for the benefit of threatened species.

• Draw flow charts to illustrate the effects of the loss of vegetation. Draw flow charts showing the ways human activities might affect threatened species. How many of these activities do the students do?

• Look for areas on or near the school that have lost their natural vegetation cover. Identify which areas can be re-established with local species. Discuss and list what needs to be done, what tools, information and materials are required. Draw a plan of the area indicating where improvements can be made. Discuss and develop the idea and take these plans to the Principal, School Grounds Committee and S.R.C. Discuss the idea with these people and ask for permission to carry out improvements. Keep a journal of what is being done. Display this journal in the school or local community library as part of a display.

• Discuss the basic requirements for survival, the basics for life, e.g. water, food, shelter. Compare and contract human needs with the needs of threatened species.

• Choose a problem associated with threatened species. Use a problem-solving approach of:Identification of a problem;

Investigation, wherein solutions are proposed, 1. investigated and tested by drawing, collecting information or making models;Decision-making;2. Modification, wherein the model or drawing is 3. evaluated and modified;Presentation;4. Action, in which solutions are carried out; and5. Monitoring and evaluation.6.

• Check the school library for books about Aboriginal communities and their relationships with the natural environment and a range of threatened species.

• Ask students to write a letter to various industries in their local area to ask questions such as whether they have environmental policies and whether they’re addressing any impacts they may have on the environment. Ask students to consider any possible impacts on species, including any threatened species, in the area.

• Consider why Australian threatened species tend to have a low profile in Australia in comparison with threatened species overseas. Ask the class to consider reasons why this may be so. Make a list of things that can be done to help increase recognition of Australian flora and fauna.

• List the main threats to threatened species in Australia. Research the effects of habitat loss, introduced animals and introduced plants on Australia’s threatened species.

• Have students (in pairs) choose an Australian threatened species and carry out research on its way of life. Suggest that one student interview another about the animal, how it lives and what is threatening it. The students can take turns at being the animal and the reporter. Write up the various interviews and select the best to be in the next school paper.

• Ask students to list their pets. Discuss where their pets are during a 24-hour day. Is there any opportunity for their pet to be roaming about disturbing native wildlife? What should be done about that? (This can be extended to a survey of pets in a street). What is meant by ‘responsible ownership’?

• Brainstorm and list ways our common domestic pets, cats and dogs, pose one of the greatest threats to many threatened species. If they are allowed to roam away from home they can disturb and frighten koalas, possums, bandicoots, small kangaroos and numerous birds. They can also kill some of them. Become a responsible pet owner and keep your pet at home, have it desexed if you are not going to breed from it, and keep it inside or under supervision, particularly at night. Does the pet have specific sleeping and playing areas inside the house? Design a series of posters with these messages, and / or make a pamphlet explaining them. Show them to friends and neighbours, and have them featured in the school newspaper or magazine.

• Have the students list the needs that people, pets and threatened species (wildlife) have in order to be able to live. The final list might include: food, water, shelter, space, habitat, sunlight, soil and air. It would be much the same for all three groups. Discuss how the needs of threatened species differ from the

others?

• Visit a selected natural habitat and list the species that live there. Include birds, plants, insects, frogs and animals. Examine the school yard and list the species there. Compare the two lists, and draw a Venn diagram to analyse differences and similarities. Discuss the reasons for these differences.

• Design a wildlife sanctuary that would be appropriate for keeping some of the rarer forms of native wildlife in your area. What sort of fence would it need? Which animals in the area of the proposed sanctuary would have to be removed – and how? How large would it need to be? What rules would you have to allow visitors without unsettling the wildlife? What would it cost?

• Smuggled Australian wildlife is big business because many species, particularly parrots, are worth large sums of money overseas. Discuss whether there is value in breeding such birds in captivity in Australia and selling them as a way of reducing the threat to local populations, and as a way of raising money for conservation. Are there problems that such a use of wildlife could cause? What would happen to the price when they become readily available? Look at the issue from different perspectives.

• There are threatened species all over Australia. Contact the Threatened Species Network Coordinator in your State to find out if there is a threatened species near you that you could help in an on-ground way.