Our Habitat Research Project

Australia is a country with many different habitats and climates. Some animals live in the sea, some in fresh water, some burrow in the soil, others fly from bush to bush looking for food and others live high up in the forest canopy. Native animals, particularly small invertebrates, exist in every tiny little corner of our environment.

Levels

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Our_Habitat_Research_Project.pdf

Outcomes

Materials you will need

Background

Method
Begin with a discussion about what kinds of animals are native to Australia. Introduce words like indigenous, adaptation, competition and predators. It may be useful to organise the class into groups representing different habitats. For example: freshwater, coastal sea area, grassland, and soil, forest canopy and understorey. So that the students get a sense of the variety within each habitat, it may be useful to encourage students to choose animals of differing size, from tiny beetles to large marsupials. Each student chooses an animal native to Australia and lives in a specific habitat. As a group they can pool information about their habitat. Each student then researches some information about his or her animal. Interesting facts, pictures and information about their preferred habitat and what adaptations the animal has developed to survive in that environment. They should find out the following: Its name? It size? Where it lives in Australia? What it eats? How it moves? How it feeds? How it protects itself? How it has young? Is it rare or endangered? Are there things we can do to help this animal? You may wish to have one group or one person from each group look at a feral animal/s. Discuss how these animals effect that habitat and the other animals that live there. Encourage students to use a wide range of sources; library books journals/magazines, the internet, encyclopedias etc. This project can be the basis for later class presentations. Students may wish to role-play their creatures in their habitat for the class.

Extension
Students can write an adventure story for their creature using some of the new vocabulary that they have discovered. They may wish to introduce some of the other animals in their group as characters in their story.

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