What Local Native Plant Is That?
In Bushland Near Your SchoolLearning Outcomes
Contribution to Queensland Curriculum
What Local Native Plant is That? has been developed around the Queensland Studies Authority Essential Learnings Framework. As such, the project goals, activities and expected outcomes are not only relevant to the curriculum, they also provide Sunshine Coast schools with the opportunity to focus on learning about their own local plants and environments, and develop integrated Knowledge and Understanding in the KLAs of Science and Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). The main approaches to teaching and learning include inquiry, experiential learning and community problem solving.
Although the lessons mainly target primary Years 6 and 7, or Levels 3 to 5 more broadly, with main focuses on Science and SOSE, teachers are welcomed to adapt them for students from other levels and subject areas (e.g. The Arts, English, Technology).
Click here (PDF 19 kb) to see how the suggested modules and lessons contribute to Essential Learnings.
As the modules and lessons plans are being developed and refined, they will be available for public download as draft PDFs. Comments and suggestions on the draft documents are most welcomed. Indeed, inputs from teachers, specialists and students will be most valuable to us in improving and further developing the modules. Simply click "contact us" on the top right corner of the page.
Suggested Teaching Modules and Lesson Plans (Draft)
Module 1: Our Local Bushland Now and Then (PDF 579 kb)
Unit 1.1: Discover our surrounds
Lesson 1.1.1: What’s on the map?
Lesson 1.1.2: Ground-truthing — Take a close look on the ground
Lesson 1.1.3: Mural of my school surrounds
Unit 1.2: Research the past – changes through time
Lesson 1.2.1: From the past to the future
Module 2: Know Our Local Native Plants
Unit 2.1: How plants get their names? (PDF 50 kb)
Lesson 2.1.1: About early explorers and botanists
Lesson 2.1.2: How do we classify living things?
Lesson 2.1.3: What’s in a name?
Unit 2.2: What makes up that plant? (PDF 28 kb)
Lesson 2.2.1: Trees and bark
Lesson 2.2.2: Leaves
Lesson 2.2.3: Flowers, fruits and seeds
Lesson 2.2.4: Bulb, rhizome, stolon, runner, sucker and tuber
Unit 2.3: Our school herbarium (PDF 18 kb)
Lesson 2.3.1: Collecting and caring for plant specimens (PDF 43 kb)
Lesson 2.3.2: From conventional to virtual herbaria
Lesson 2.3.3: Fun with a key
Unit 2.4: Survival of the fittest
Lesson 2.4.1: Spot the invaders (environmental weeds)
Lesson 2.4.2: Adaptations for life between the tides
Module 3: Who Use Our Local Native Plants?
Unit 3.1: Plant—Animal Interactions
Lesson 3.1.1: Who Live with our Plants?
Lesson 3.1.2: Who eats who?
Lesson 3.1.3: Food web and nutrient recycling
Unit 3.2: Humans as harvester, steward or terminator?
Lesson 3.2.1: Aboriginal uses of native plants
Lesson 3.2.2: Riparian restoration or Weed buster
Lesson 3.2.3: Modern landscaping
