Stage 2 The Living World

Discover how students can make a positive impact on their environment with the Taking Care of Our Place incursion, which explores local places and promotes simple actions to protect them. This geography program encourages young learners to develop a strong sense of environmental responsibility at school and home.

An overhead shot of 4 students in yellow shirts and various coloured hats examining leaf litter. It looks like the students are collecting insects or doing a count of something in the ground.
Counting invertabrates

About this incursion

Living World is an approximately 1.5-hour Stage 2 incursion focusing on Science and Technology content for Stage 2 Living World. The program focuses on classification, life cycles and the survival of living things. Students will take part in science-based investigations in their classroom and on the school grounds to collect data and information about living things, their external features, and how they differ from non-living things.

Inquiry Questions

Pre-visit and follow-up resources

Pre-visit Activities

Activities before the program's delivery will help prepare students for the day and link the program to the class program. These could include:

  • Visit MyLearning Minibeasts and learn more about invertebrates.
  • Work through the classification decision tree on the website: What creature is that? with your class to discover the two creatures that you will be studying during the incursion.
Follow-up Activities
  • View the Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre Multi-Touch e-book called Invertebrate Explorer to learn more about classifying invertebrates.
Downloadable Resources
Download a PDF of pre- and post-visit resources and activities by clicking here.

Activities on the day

During the incursion, students:
  • Listen to a story about an animal and its relationship to its environment.
  • Study a preserved Grey-headed Flying Fox and an Ant Farm to learn about the different features of animals and ways of classifying animals.
  • View models of the life cycle of bats and ants and learn about the similarities and differences between the life cycles of living things.
  • Undertake an invertebrate (bug) hunt in the school yard to collect and classify living bugs.
  • Study bugs with magnifying glasses to observe their features and classify them using a classification chart.
  • Participate in two scientific experiments: What do ants prefer to eat, and how do ants help with seed dispersal?
  • Use air-dry clay and collected playground objects to model an invertebrate.
  • Use an Amaziograph app on iPads to draw a scientific picture of an ant.

Important information

Cost
  • Government Schools: $15 per student  (GST-free)
  • Non-Government Schools: $25 per student (GST-free). Minimum cost of $600.
Location
Incursions are available to schools in the following council areas: Bayside, Burwood, Canada Bay, Canterbury, City of Sydney, Georges River, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Randwick, Sutherland, Waverley, Willoughby and Woollahra.
Key syllabus outcomes and content

Key syllabus outcomes

  • Identifies places and develops an understanding of the importance of places to people GEe-1
  • Communicates geographical information and uses geographical tools GEe-2
  • Describes features of places and the connections people have with places GE1-1
  • Identifies ways in which people interact with and care for places GE1-2

Integrating the Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority is a feature of the program.

Skills outcomes

  • observes, questions and collects data to communicate ideas STe-1WS-S

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