Session 1 · VOICE: Observe
Field day 1: count what lives here
- 10 minSafety briefing and roles: recorder, sampler, measurer, photographer, checker. Agree how every creature goes back.
- 35 minSample with your context's method (kick-net, leaf-litter tray and pitfall cups, or quadrats in each shore zone). Take three readings of each measure at the same spot.
- 5 minCheck the sheet: any gaps or odd numbers? Note the weather and time.
Session 2 · VOICE: Investigate
Plan a fair comparison
- 10 minWhat could change our results? List variables: time of day, weather, sample size, how hard we searched.
- 20 minPlan a comparison between two spots (shaded vs open, mown vs unmown, high vs low zone, above vs below a drain): what changes, what stays the same, how many repeats.
- 10 minKōkako asks one question about your plan. Improve one thing.
- 10 minWrite a prediction with a reason. If you are working in the school grounds, set pitfall cups and a tracking tunnel tonight.
Getting started
Use the picture key to sort creatures into 'sensitive' and 'tolerant', or into plant-eaters, hunters and decomposers.
Stretch
Work out the mean and range for each measure and say which is most variable.
Checkpoint
Records are complete, with units, and the comparison plan changes only one thing.
Activities for this week
- Stream health check: How healthy is our nearest stream, and how would we know?
- Pitfall night shift: Which part of the school grounds has the most kinds of ground creatures moving about at night?
- Leaf-litter lamp funnel: What tiny animals live in the leaf litter, and what do they do there?
- Rocky shore quadrat survey: How does life change from the top of the shore to the bottom, and why?
Useful this week
- Observing freshwater macroinvertebrates ↗ How to catch, look at and group stream creatures safely.
- Soil Bugs: a guide to NZ soil invertebrates ↗ Photos and notes to identify what turns up in your pitfall cups and leaf litter.
- Marine Metre Squared ↗ Seashore survey guides and ID sheets, and a place to share your quadrat data.
- Making a tracking tunnel ↗ Build a tunnel and read the footprints of night visitors.
- Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit (SHMAK) ↗ The kit and methods community groups use to check stream health.