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Video

Party locusts

This 8 minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent example of animal behaviour of locusts as a successful adaptation and how understanding the behaviour can potentially help reduce the damage they cause.

Video

Cloud seeding

This nine and a half minute video segment from Catalyst describes how researchers from Monash University have hard evidence that cloud seeding can produce good amounts of extra rainfall. Data collected over a long period of time has give hope to scientists and environmentalists who are trying to reduce the impacts of droughts ...

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Ant safari

This ABC In Depth feature article includes some good advice for exploring local ant populations as well as an excellent information report on Australian ants: the different types and their roles.

Interactive

Murray-Darling Basin Quiz

This is a ten question multiple choice quiz on student understanding of issues specific to the Murray-Darling Basin, but are examples of common Australian environmental problems resulting from human activities. This is a non-threatening activity that provides excellent explanations as feedback.

Video

Water recycling

This 11 minute video segment from Catalyst provides an excellent explanation of the processes involved in recycling sewage for an urban water supply. It also provides a range of opinions and concerns in an excellent debate on the topic.

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Ibis Invasion

This ABC In Depth feature article describes research on Australian white ibis - or 'tip turkeys' as many call them. They are regarded as a nuisance in cities, especially in the spring breeding season. But scientists fear they may become extinct as more pressure is put on the wetlands that are their native and adopted environments. ...

Interactive

Aim to sustain: Alien invaders

Students examine and respond to information on introduced species and their impact on the Australian environment. The resource includes videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets and links to further interactive resources. Students have the opportunity to compose and present persuasive texts. The resource includes support notes ...

Interactive

Studying Habitats

Students use this resource consisting of four slides with diagrams, written explanation and voice-over to understand the type of observations and measurements that need to be made when studying an ecosystem. There is a two-question quiz and a summary slide.

Video

Sea Urchins

This 7 minute video segment from Catalyst describes an excellent example of how biologists have worked to investigate and solve a problem of an invading species of sea urchin that was devastating a marine ecosystem. The scientific approach to develop a biological control needed to rely on technologies such as radio tracking ...

Video

Foreign Correspondent: Mesoamerican Reef threatened

The Mesoamerican Reef, just off the shore of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, is under major threat. Listen to oceanographer Roberto Iglesias-Prieto explain how untreated wastewater affects the underground river system and the reef.

Video

Bali and Sumba: Paradise versus poverty

We all know the idyllic paradise called Bali, but have you ever heard of its poorer neighbour, the Indonesian island of Sumba, where the people struggle to grow food to eat? Watch this clip to learn about environmental conditions and agricultural challenges there. Find out also what people in Sumba are doing to prepare ...

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Biodiversity and farming for a healthy planet

This is a digital resource containing information and resources, such as printable games, that relate to biodiversity and farming, and how food and materials can be produced while protecting the Earth's natural resources. It includes an extensive glossary of important terms, and external links to teacher and student resources ...

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Food and human wellbeing

This is an online resource about two contrasting Indonesian islands, Bali and Sumba, highlighting the inequalities that exist within Indonesia. The resource compares the rice and rainforests of Bali with the corn and savannah grasslands of the more remote, and less wealthy Sumba, and examines each in terms of the challenges ...

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Urbanisation and human wellbeing

This is an online resource looking at Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, as an example of a megacity. It considers change and growth in Jakarta, reasons for urbanisation and examines some of the problems facing megacities such as inequality of wealth, as well as those specific to Jakarta, particularly its vulnerability ...

Online

Carbon clues

Carbon is all around us and available to us in many different forms, yet we can’t see it and often we don’t even know it’s there – using a detective story setting students sift through clues to build an understanding of carbon and the implications of its use. The unit includes PDF resources and video quiz challenges for ...

Online

How is a frog able to swim in trees?

This is a teaching-learning resource containing teaching strategies and student activities about the dependence of plants and animals on each other and the environment for survival. The resource has seven tabs, six of which are relevant. The first four set out the steps in the suggested pedagogical sequence and include ...

Interactive

Using a Quadrat

Students use this resource consisting of eight slides with diagrams, written explanation and voice-over to understand how to use a quadrat to estimate a plant population size. There is a two-question quiz and a summary slide.

Video

Ladybirds

This program encourages people to observe and identify ladybirds in their own backyard. There is the potential to discover a new species or identify an introduced and harmful member of this group of insects.

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Indigenous Science: shell middens and fish traps

This is an article about Aboriginal shell middens along the Queensland coast and the information they provide about Aboriginal food collection practices. Written by Kudjala/Kalkadoon Elder from Queensland Letitia Murgha and intended mainly for teachers, it describes how shell middens were created over thousands of years ...

Interactive

Science Talk 2007: Jeremy Leggett

An interview with Dr Jeremy Leggett, global environmental expert from Solarcentury in the UK. Jeremy talks to a teacher from Leumeah High School about global warming, fossil fuels and the design of carbon neutral buildings.