9.

Improving biodiversity

An investigation into biodiversity through macroinvertebrates and water quality for Years 2-7.

Contents

Big idea / Page 1
Overview / Page 1
Essential questions / Page 1
Goals / Page 2
Links to the South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework – Domain 4 / Page 2
Links to the Australian Curriculum / Page 2
Engagement activities - To capture students’ interest and find out what they think they know about macroinvertebrates and their habitats. / Page 2
Activity 1: Learning about macroinvertebrates / Page 2
Activity 2: Excursion to a freshwater site / Page 3
Exploratory activities - To provide hands-on, shared experiences of fair testing. / Page 3
Activity 1: Introduce the water testing activities available through NRM Education. / Page 3
Explanatory activities – To help students understand the pollutants and their effect on waterways. / Page 4
Activity 1: Students’ questions – explained / Page 4
Elaborating activities –To provide opportunities for students to apply their learning. / Page 5
Taking action / Page 5
Evaluating activities – To provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their learning and outcomes. / Page 5
Extension activities - / Page 5
Further science links and activities: / Page 6
Resources / Page 8
Attachment one: Macroinvertebrate study tally sheets / Page 9
Attachment two: Local wetlands / Page 11

Big idea

How healthy is the biodiversity in our school grounds and local area? One aspect of local biodiversity is the health of local waterways. A way to check this health is to investigate the numbers and kinds of macroinvertebrates in the water. Students are actively involved in this investigation and identify actions they can take to improve local biodiversity in and around the waterway and/or school. Teachers are encouraged to adapt the investigation to suit the interests and needs of their students.

Overview

Select a local freshwater habitat to investigate, preferably within walking distance of the school. If this is not possible, there are a lot of potential sites in Appendix 2. The class can travel by bus to visit the site; if this is not practical, the teacher can collect samples and take photographs to be brought back to school. The macroinvertebrates should be returned to the collection site after the investigation.

Firstly, students collect, observe, identify, record and compare the macroinvertebrates they have found. Research the macroinvertebrates to find out about habitat, diet, lifecycle, movement, features, predators and sensitivity to pollutants. Secondly, students can investigate pollutants in the freshwater habitat that may be affecting the macroinvertebrates by conducting tests on the water (e.g. turbidity, salinity, pH, temperature, nitrate and phosphate). Research can also be conducted on these pollutants to assist students in explaining the effect they have on waterways. Further investigation can be conducted to find out how these pollutants get into the waterway by participating in Gutter Guardians. Click here to view the Gutter Guardians resource. Finally, students can discuss, plan, justify, undertake and evaluate actions they can take to improve local biodiversity in and around the waterway and/or school.

Essential questions

·  What are catchments?

·  What effects water quality?

·  How can water quality be tested?

·  What actions can we take to support healthy ecosystems and improve biodiversity?

Goals

Students will understand / Students will know / Students will be able to
·  The concept of a catchment
·  The concept of an ecosystem / ·  What affects water quality
·  What actions can be taken to support healthy waterways / ·  Identify some macroinvertebrates
·  Take action to improve local biodiversity

Links to the South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework – Domain 4

Personalise and connect learning / 4.1 build on learners’ understandings / 4.2 connect learning to students’ lives and aspirations / 4.3 apply and assess learning in authentic contexts / 4.4 communicate learning in multiple modes

Links to the Australian Curriculum - (teachers to determine specific links for year levels)

Learning Areas / Science / English / Mathematics / Geography

Cross-curriculum priorities

Sustainability / OI 2. All life forms, including human life, are connected through ecosystems on which they depend for their wellbeing and survival. / OI 7. Actions for a more sustainable future reflect values of care, respect and responsibility, and require us to explore and understand environments. / OI 9. Sustainable futures result from actions designed to preserve and/or restore the quality and uniqueness of environments.

General capabilities

Literacy / Numeracy / Information and communication technology (ICT) capability / Critical and creative thinking / Personal and social capability / Ethical behaviour

Engagement activities - To capture students’ interest and find out what they think they know about macroinvertebrates and their habitats.

Activity 1: Learning about macroinvertebrates

Duration: 1- 1.5 hours

Materials: A4 coloured, laminated pictures of macroinvertebrates (can be downloaded by clicking here)

  1. Students have a dictionary race to find out the meanings of biodiversity, catchment, ecosystem, habitat, and macroinvertebrates. Discuss the meanings and ask them to identify how these concepts are all connected. Draw a mind map to represent their ideas.
  2. Distribute one A4 picture of macroinvertebrates to each student.
  3. Students discuss the pictures in groups. Find out what they know about macroinvertebrates, where they might live, how they are connected to each other and any other related information.
  4. Discuss similarities and differences.
  5. Ask one student to stand and show their picture. Ask others to join the student if they think that their creature has any similar characteristics. Continue activity until all have been grouped. Students in new groups to discuss similarities and differences.
  6. Ask students to write down any questions they have about macroinvertebrates.
  7. Tell them that the macroinvertebrates all live in the same environment and ask them to suggest where. (A yabby is a good indicator that it is a freshwater environment.) List the freshwater environments e.g. river, creek, pond, dam, wetland.
  8. Connect the freshwater environments to the concepts of biodiversity, a catchment, ecosystems and habitats.
  9. Ask them to discuss any characteristics they think might help the macroinvertebrates survive in the freshwater environment.
  10. Use the Habitat Zone Series of posters for students to identify the habitat of their macroinvertebrate. Record what they have discovered and share with other students. Click here to view the posters.
  11. Using a map of the local area identify the various habitats. Ask students if they have explored any of these places and what they found. Discuss the positive and negative impacts of people on these places and the animals that live there (e.g. introduced plants and animals, rubbish, landcare groups, revegetation projects).
  12. Ask students if they know the word ‘sustainability’ and what it means. Identify people’s role in taking action to preserve or restore the quality and uniqueness of local environments into the future.

Activity 2: Excursion to a freshwater site

Duration: collecting macros = 1 hour.

Materials: Copies of tally sheets (attachment one) for each child, clipboards, pencils.

Borrow a free macro monitoring kit from NRM Education which contains 10 nets, macro-viewers, trays, and other useful equipment. Ideally you want one net per two students or make your own nets and use 6 -7 white ice-cream containers, plastic spoons and print off the macro identification charts OR purchase nets from a known supplier. If taking back to the classroom from a waterway off-site you will need two buckets with lids to transport (lids are essential as they will spill in vehicle). Macroinvertebrates must be returned to the site.

Note: Some local sites are listed as Appendix 2.

1.  In groups of 3 or 4, catch, identify and record macroinvertebrates in the waterway. It is useful to have 3 or 4 parents along to help with safety and recording what is found.

2.  Ask students to record the condition of the surrounding area (e.g. weediness, rubbish, new plants).

3.  Take results back to school and record in graph form. Discuss the groupings on the identification sheet and what this means (e.g. sensitive and tolerant).

4.  Colour the graph according to the sensitivity of the macroinvertebrate (e.g. very sensitive = red, sensitive = yellow, tolerant = green, very tolerant = blue - as featured on ID Chart).

5.  Discuss findings and why only a few or no very sensitive macroinvertebrates were found. Discuss if this relates to the condition of the surroundings. Ask the students to record any questions they have.

Here the students should come up with the idea that something might be wrong with the water causing the sensitive macroinvertebrates to die. They will probably suggest that the water could be polluted as well as other ideas so guide them to thinking, “how can we find out?”

TIP: Undertake this activity at different times of the year as well as before and after storm events as the results will be very different and serve as a good discussion point.

TIP: NRM Education can train students/teachers/parents on how to undertake this activity provided the school is an AuSSI-SA school and has plans in place to utilise the training on other within the school community.

Question for students: “How can we find out if something is in the water that could be effecting the macroinvertebrates?”

Introduce the water testing kits, discussing the tests and what the results will mean for aquatic life.

Exploratory activities - To provide hands-on, shared experiences of fair testing.

Activity 1: Introduce the water testing activities available through NRM Education.

Test / Description
Turbidity / Opacity or muddiness caused by particles of extraneous matter; not clear or transparent. In general, the more material that is suspended in water, the greater is the water's turbidity and the lower its clarity.
pH / A measure of acidity (or alkalinity). All animals and plants are adapted to specific pH ranges, generally between 6.5 and 8.0. If the pH of a waterway or waterbody is outside the normal range for an organism it can cause stress or even death to that organism.
Salinity / Salinity measures the salt content in water and can be measured using an ECM (Electric Conductivity Meter).
Temperature / How hot or cold the water is. Aquatic species have evolved to live in water of specific temperatures. If the water becomes colder or warmer, the organisms do not function as effectively, and become more susceptible to toxic wastes, parasites and diseases. With extreme temperature change, many organisms will die. Changes in long-term temperature average may cause differences in the species that are present in the ecosystem.
Flow / The volume of water that passes through a passage of any given section in a unit of time. When there is little water in the waterway (low flow) sediment settles quickly to the bottom, sections of the stream will become semi-stagnant resulting in low dissolved oxygen concentrations, algal growth will increase if there is adequate light, leading to algal blooms, and salinity and water temperature may increase to values that effect the biota in the waterway.

Adapted from http://www.waterwatch.org.au/publications/module4/

Optional activity

The following tests are more beneficial for indicating pollution in the water that could be effecting the macroinvertebrates, but the testing equipment is no longer part of the kit. Click here to see where the tests can be purchased from.

Test / Description
Nitrate / An element that is essential for all forms of life. The element nitrogen is recycled continually by plants and animals, and is present in freshwaters at higher concentrations than phosphate.
Phosphate / Phosphates available to plants and animals are called orthophosphates. Plant growth is limited by the availability of dissolved orthophosphate. A sudden increase in orthophosphate in inland waters can stimulate great increases in the growth of algae, particularly, as well as other aquatic plants. Algal blooms potentially produce toxins and also can cause large deficits of dissolved oxygen.
Dissolved oxygen (advanced training required) / A measure of the quantity of oxygen present in water. Oxygen is essential for almost all forms of life. Aquatic animals, plants and most bacteria need it for respiration (getting energy from food), as well as for some chemical reactions. The concentration of dissolved oxygen is an important indicator of the health of the aquatic ecosystem. Persistently low dissolved oxygen will harm most aquatic life because there will not be enough for them to use.

Adapted from: http://www.waterwatch.org.au/publications/module4/

Conduct the above tests on the water, record your results. Discuss the results and draw a conclusion about the health of the water.

Explanatory activities – To help students understand the pollutants and their effect on waterways.

Activity 1: Students’ questions – explained

Document the questions generated by students from their water testing. Questions may include:

·  What is …. turbidity/pH (etc)?

·  What effect do they have on freshwater environments?

·  How does ….. turbidity/pH (etc) affect the macroinvertebrates?

·  How do these pollutants get into the water?

Students in groups research their questions and share and discuss the results of their research.

Elaborating activities –To provide opportunities for students to apply their learning.

Taking action:

Having looked at biodiversity through the health of the waterway and surroundings, discuss with students the values of caring, respect and responsibility and identify ways to take action to preserve or improve local biodiversity. Invite an NRM Education officer (link) to the discussion. They will be able to provide practical ideas for students to consider. Promote the actions with other students and the community to seek support and undertake the improvements. Use photos to highlight the differences before and after the improvements.

Ideas for taking action:

·  Designing a frog pond or bog garden on your school grounds. This would be a great student-initiated project. Students could put together a proposal and seek the approval of the school community.

·  Investigating the opportunity to make a mini-wetland. There are guidelines and funding grants available through NRM Education.

·  Contacting local community Landcare groups to see if they would like some student assistance with revegetation projects at freshwater sites.