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Listed under:  Science  >  Environmental management
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Every drop counts, being water wise!

This activity aims to explore water usage and water saving ideas. Every drop counts! OUTCOMES are for children to: understand the importance of water; look at ways to help save water; and undertake a water audit.

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Waterways: clean-up

We all have the power to help keep our coastlines, rivers, lakes, swamps, creeks, floodplains, billabongs and estuaries clean by diverting rubbish from our waterways. This can be done with regular clean-ups, picking up litter when you see it, and changing our behaviour such as limiting our use of single-use plastic. This ...

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Understanding weeds: life cycle

Weeds compete with native plants in our natural environments, and can dominate both natural ecosystems and areas of agricultural production. This competition limits biodiversity, as well as the economic potential for farmers. This activity will look closely at three different weed forms and children will learn about their ...

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Mathematics of bushfire

In these classroom activities students will be introduced to some of the basic mathematical principles that underpin wildfire science, with an emphasis on how theoretical concepts are used to aid our understanding of the real world, and bushfire in particular. They will learn about the complexities of the fire management ...

Video

Stellar scintillation

This resource explores a concept belonging to the Meriam (Mer) people of the Torres Strait who have long understood the importance of stellar scintillation to their lives. and the ways it can prove useful in understanding our environment. This activity involves watching a video of an elder playing a Meriam star song and ...

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Fire and land management: past and present

The focus of this resource is on understanding the seasons and the way that fire shapes the lives of human and animal inhabitants of Australia. By examining the role of fire, seasonal calendars and food webs students will understand the environment all around them. Students will use two case studies in Western Australia, ...

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Food and fibre production: an Aboriginal perspective

This resource investigates historical Australian Aboriginal agricultural production. Chapters include: Aboriginal agriculture- Firestick farming, Cultivation and cropping and aquaculture, Farming and living to the calendar, and the environmental impacts of firestick farming. Suggested answers document also available. The ...

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Space Exploration: Community of Inquiry

In this resource, students participate in a community of inquiry to consider the implications of human space travel. This process gives students the opportunity to come to a full, shared understanding of the concepts and issues around human space travel.

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Creating your own potato chips: growing

This learning activity will teach children to grow, cook and market their own brand of potato chips. The first step is growing our potatoes! This learning activity is the first part of a sequence of 3 individual learning activities focused on creating your own potato chips. The order of these learning activities are: growing, ...

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Unit for Year 3 to 4 Butterflies: Engaging with nature

This unit of work engages students in preparing butterfly gardens in their schoolgrounds. It explores scientific entomology, features of caterpillars and butterflies, the lifecycle of butterflies, survival requirements, and the characteristics of butterfly gardens. The unit includes worksheets, assessment ideas, pictures, ...

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Creating a food garden: site assessment and mapping

This learning activity is part of a sequence of 5 individual learning activities focused on creating a food garden. The order of these learning activities are: vision, site assessment, installing a no dig garden bed, planting and harvesting. OUTCOMES of the learning activity are for children to understand more about the ...

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Creating a wildlife habitat: design

Creating a wildlife habitat can provide a home for a variety of local wildlife from the smallest insects and spiders to birds, reptiles, mammals and frogs. These habitats can provide a sanctuary for species that have been displaced through urbanisation, as built structures replace natural areas. The Vision activity determined ...

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Moving oceans

This unit explores the Moving Oceans project as a model for students to create their own project designed for their local community. It is not necessary to live in a coastal geographic location for this learning sequence to be implemented into classroom contexts.

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BTN: Seeding clouds to make rain and snow

Imagine if we could control the weather. Find out how scientists are already at work making clouds rain when and where they want. It's called cloud seeding. Watch this clip to understand how cloud seeding works, and where it is being used in Australia.

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Foreign Correspondent: Ethiopia's nomadic pastoralists doing it tough

In 2008, Ethiopia's famines just keep coming, fuelled by prolonged periods of drought, rising food prices and an increasing population. Listen to aid worker Valerie Browning in a program aired that year, as she describes how nomadic pastoralists living in the remote regions of Afar try to survive and make their livelihood ...

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War on Waste: Recycling e-waste to raise money for food charities

We all know recycling is a great way to reduce waste going into landfills, but there can be other benefits too. Some social entrepreneurs are recycling e-waste, not only to keep them from going into landfills, but also to generate revenue to help fund food charities. Craig Reucassel mentions how using technology for longer ...

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Catalyst: How high will sea levels rise?

Much of the world’s population will eventually have to deal with the consequences of sea-level rise, but the question is: how high will the water get? Dr Graham Phillips investigates how scientists are turning to the distant past to predict the impact of rising sea levels. Watch scientists explore 120,000-year-old coastlines, ...

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Game changers and change makers: resource book of ideas for National Science Week 2018

This resource book includes ideas to support students’ involvement in investigating, exploring, experimenting, designing, creating and communicating their understandings about game changers and change makers from the past who have solved some of the seemingly unsolvable problems, to game changers and change makers of today, ...

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BTN: Animal recognition system

We have all heard of human face recognition systems, but have you heard of animal recognition technology? Watch this clip to discover how an 'animal recognition gate' is being used to separate the sheep from the goats. Find out how this innovative application of a popular technology might help farmers manage pest animals ...

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Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing

This is a video of a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk by Professor Marla Spivak about the dramatic decline in the number of bees. The 16-minute video begins with a discussion of why humans should care about bees, including their critical importance for the world's food supply. Professor Spivak explains that ...