Projects : General Projects

Catchment Connections - Understanding ecosystems

Folder 2 - "Understanding ecosystems"
This folder is the second of the four key learning themes.

Understanding ecosystems has been split into topics:

What is an ecosystem?
Native vegetation
Wildlife / Bioindicators
Inland freshwater ecosystems
Estuarine / coastal marine
Groundwater

Some activities will give reference to additional web or material information. Further broader information beyond the scope of Catchment Connections can be accessed via a plethora of web-based resources found mostly within the Water Learning and Living and Catchment Care sections of www.watercare.net

There are also a range of resources, which are available for loan from the Waterwatch and
Catchment Care resource libraries.

Section 1 - What is an ecosystem?

Download discussion topics and lesson Ideas	Download activities
1. Habitats, ecosystems and biodiversity	Iinformation cards - card a, birds (711kb) - card b, insects (828kb) - card c, mammals (840kb) - card d, reptiles (1.0mg)
2. What do you need to survive?
3. What do other animals need for survival?	What do I need to survive? - Worksheet (926kb)
4. Construct a food chain

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Section 2 - Native vegetation

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5. Vegetation associations	Poster showing locations of associations (A3) - (306kb)
6. Introduction to botany
7. Monocot or dicot?	Monocot or dicot? - Part a - Worksheet (788kb) - Part b - Teacher cheat sheet (1.8mg)
8. Local indigenous plant identification	Eucalyptus: Which one is which? (1.9mg)
	Eucalypts of a Grey Box Woodland ID Sheet -order this poster
9. Buds, flowers and fruit for insects, fur and feathers.
10. Accolades to Acacias	Further information and worksheet
11. Seeds of life
12. Seed structure relates to function	How does seed travel through the environment? (266kb)

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Section 3 - Wildlife / Bioindicators

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13. Introduction to aquatic macroinvertebrates	How to make a stocking net to catch bugs
	The great water bug hunt -comprehension exercise - pages 1 and 2 (1.2mg) - pages 3 to 5 (2.3mg) - student questions (630kb)
	Water bug match up - puzzle (563kb)
	Macroinvertebrates - Am I tolerant or sensitive to pollution? (1.1mg)
	Healthy Habitats (1.5mg)
14. Scrape, jiggle and sweep	Where is the habitat? - Site survey (1.2mg)
	Freshwater invertebrates of the Onkaparinga (786kb)
	Which critter did you catch? (1.1mg)
	How do aquatic macroinvertebrates feed?
15. Introduction to frogs	Can you find your mate? (2.5mg)
	Frog life cycle (1.0mg)
	Froggy mix and match (1.6mg)
16. Introduction to birds	What bird am I? (622kb)
	Part's of a bird's body (479kb)
	Invent a bird (581kb)
17. Field guides are friendly	Field guide look up (1.6mg)
18. Bird identification: more than just pretty feathers	More than just pretty feathers (1.8mg)
19. Birds as biological indicators
20. Bird cards	Card game - What bird am I? - Card 1 (1.1 mg) - Card 2 (1.2mg) - Card 3 (956kb) - Card 4 (876kb) - Card 5 (980kb) - Card 6 (979kb) - Card 7 (445kb) - Card 8 (950kb) - Card 9 (956kb) - Card 10 (580kb) - Card 11 (580kb) - Card 12 (433kb) - Card 13 (456kb) - Card 14 (441kb) - Card 15 (416kb)
21. Funky fish - native fish More info- - Fishy facts - Native fish of the catchment (1.3mg)	Can you save the native fish? - Part a (938kb) - Part b (960kb)
	Where's Congoli now? (726kb)
	Can you name the parts of a fish? Part a (514kb) Part b (524kb)

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Section 4 - Inland freshwater ecosystems

Download discussion topics and lesson Ideas	Download activities
22. Introduction to wetlands	Why wetlands? Upper Primary (941kb)
	Why wetlands? Junior Primary (760kb)
	Junior wetland words (343kb)

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Section 5 - Estuarine / coastal marine

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23. The Onkaparinga River Estuary	Estuary field - Background (1.9mg) - Worksheet (1.3mg)
	Be a beach detective (781kb)
	Creatures of the estuary (367kb)
	Salinity monitoring (1.2mg)

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Section 6 - Groundwater

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24. Introduction to groundwater

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Resources you can order
The Catchment Board also has a number of useful resources that are too large to store on this website.

Click here to read more about these resources

Go to: -- Folder1-- Folder2 -- Folder 3 -- Folder 4

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