The land where I live: Flora and fauna explorations (7&8)

In this science lesson, students first learn about the land where their school or home is located. Working in groups, students devise a classification system using the leaves from local plants. ‘Capturing’ local fauna with their phone cameras students build up a database of species and populations. Finally, students make a plan of action to regenerate Australia with their newfound knowledge of local flora and fauna.

Learning intentions:

Students will...

• discover what traditional lands, or what language group, clan or nation, their home/school is located on
• learn about classification by participating in a Lego brick and a leaf classification activity
• search for fauna in their school and tabulate the data
• research the diversity of local fauna and flora prior to development
• devise a plan to bring back native flora and fauna in order to regenerate Australia.

Success criteria:

Students can...

• recall the name of the Country they reside
• produce a dichotomous key classification system for leaves
• collect and collate data and record on a spreadsheet
• research historical information regarding flora and fauna in the local area.

Credits and acknowledgements:

Curriculum material and mapping has been developed and written by Cool.org.

Regenerating Australia is a Regen Studios film developed and produced in association with WWF-Australia. Cool.org and Regen Studios would like to acknowledge the generous contributions of Shark Island Foundation, Documentary Australia Foundation, and our philanthropic partners in the development of these teaching resources.