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Improving biodiversityLearning about water bugs – An Early Years investigation into freshwater environments as special places; assessing water quality by learning about macroinvertebrates and making site improvements.ContentsBig idea Page 1Overview Page 2Essential questions Page 2Goals Page 2Links to the South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework – Domain 4 Page 2Links to the Australian Curriculum Page 2Key words Page 3Learning activities Page 3Activity 1: Beginning the water discussion (classroom) Page 3Activity 2: Taking the discussion outside (classroom and outside) Page 4Activity 3: The Story of Danny the Drip (classroom) Page 4Activity 4: Healthy or unhealthy? Exploring the health of a waterway through ‘natural clues’ (classroom)

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Activity 5: Exploring freshwater creatures and what bio-indicator creatures are (classroom) Page 6Activity 6: Collecting and observing macroinvertebrates from a local site (outside and/or classroom) Page 6Activity 7: What is the quality of the water? Is it healthy or unhealthy for water bugs? (classroom) Page 7Activity 8: How healthy is our site and taking action to improve the quality of our local freshwater? (classroom)

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Extension activities Page 8Resources Page 10Attachments Page 10Attachment one - Make your own net Page 10Attachment two: Danny the Drip teacher notes and story Page 11Attachment three: Creek diagram Page 13Attachment four: Macroinvertebrate cut outs Page 14Attachment five: Macroinvertebrate recording sheet Page 16Attachment six: Local wetlands Page 18

Big ideaLocal waterways are special natural sites and need to be cared for. How healthy is a local pond, wetland, creek or river system? By undertaking a macroinvertebrate survey you can assess the health of a local freshwater habitat. The range of water macroinvertebrates is a good indicator of the health of a freshwater environment. In this series of lessons R-2 students undertake investigations, report their findings and plan actions to improve the freshwater quality of their chosen site. Learning activities are selected to engage head, heart and hands and for students to connect with and care for local freshwater habitats. Teachers are encouraged to adapt the investigation to suit the interests and needs of their students.

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OverviewThis investigation aims to build upon children’s intrinsic curiosity and assist them to make discoveries about their local freshwater environments. It aims to incorporate many of the valuable resources available on the education pages of Natural Resources Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges’ website in a sequential and supportive way for teachers. Teachers and students discuss and select a local freshwater habitat to investigate for water bugs. Students share local knowledge, observe and research sites which will inform discussion. This website provides you with further local resources and information. Once the freshwater invertebrates have been investigated it is important to return them to the site.

Essential questions How are waterways special places and how can we care for them? What does bio-indicator mean and why are fresh water macroinvertebrates bio-indicators? What are some of the freshwater macroinvertebrates living in our local freshwater habitats? What can freshwater macroinvertebrates tell us about the health of a freshwater environment? Why are freshwater water macroinvertebrates important and why do we care about them? What can be done to improve local, special places such as waterways?

GoalsStudents will understand Students will know Students will be able toThe diversity of macroinvertebrate species in a freshwater habitat is an indicator of biodiversity health.The importance of fresh water quality.Actions can be taken to improve freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity.

What a bio-indicator is.What biodiversity is.What an ecosystem is.The connection between freshwater water quality and macroinvertebrate types.Some local macroinvertebrate species.What is needed for a range of macroinvertebrates to live in local freshwater habitats.Why we need to care for special places and macroinvertebrates.

Identify some local freshwater macroinvertebrates.Discuss ways to improve freshwater water quality in their local area.Take action to improve special places such as waterways.

Links to the South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework – Domain 4Personalise and connect learning

4.1 build on learners’ understandings

4.2 connect learning to students’ lives and aspirations

4.3 apply and assess learning in authentic contexts

4.4 communicate learning in multiple modes

Links to the Australian Curriculum - (teachers to determine specific links for year levels)Learning areas Science English Mathematics Geography

Australian Curriculum - science linksClick here to go to the Australian Curriculum website:

It shows Foundation to Yr 2 Science with the General Capabilities and Sustainability cross curriculum filter applied. It provides content descriptors for each strand and year level, along with achievement standards and science portfolio work samples.

This lesson sequence reflects many of the content descriptors from the Biological Sciences in the Science Understanding Strand and also within the Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Inquiry Skills strands.

Science assessment samplesAt the above link there are science portfolio work samples at the end of the year level achievement standards.

The following pages from each year level provide some assessment ideas related to this inquiry you may choose to use with students.

Foundation, pg 3 Living Things are affected by their Environment Year 1, pg 11 Minibeasts Year 2 Daintree Pond Wetland.

Cross-curriculum prioritiesSustainability

OI.2 All life forms, including human life,

OI5. World views are formed by

OI7. Actions for a more sustainable

OI.9 Sustainable futures result from

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are connected through ecosystems on which they depend for their wellbeing and survival.

experiences at personal, local, national and global levels, and are linked to individual and community actions for sustainability.

future reflect values of care, respect and responsibility, and require us to explore and understand environments.

actions designed to preserve and/or restore the quality and uniqueness of environments

General capabilitiesLiteracy Numeracy Information and

communication technology capability

Critical and creative thinking

Intercultural understanding

Key wordsKey word Use

Bio-indicatorBiological indicators are animals, plants and other life-forms used to monitor the health of an environment or eco-system. If an animal is an indicator, it is the first to respond to change; e.g. frogs indicate the health, or otherwise, of a waterway, as they are one of the first species to be impacted by pollution.

Biodiversity All living organisms (trees, plants, genes, ecosystems).Diversity The number of different types (e.g. types of water macroinvertebrates) not the total

number of individuals.Habitat A habitat is an area where a species lives and gets everything it needs; e.g. a pond is an

ideal habitat for frogs.Ecosystem An ecosystem can consist of multiple habitats. A forest ecosystem may have a pond (for

frogs), large trees (for nesting birds), and logs (for lizards).Habitat diversity The number of different types of different habitats in an ecosystem.Habitat condition The overall health of a particular habitat for a certain species.Aquatic macroinvertebrates

Aquatic = lives in water. Macro = can be seen with the human eye. Invertebrates = animals without a backbone.

Species Different types of an animal or plant etc are considered different species. For example magpie, kookaburra and pigeon are three different species of bird.

Learning activitiesWhere does the water go when it rains?This series of lessons is designed for R-2 students. It aims to build upon the children’s intrinsic curiosity and assist them in making discoveries about their local freshwater environments. It aims to incorporate many of the valuable resources available on the NRM Education website in a sequential and supportive way for teachers.

Preparation Make copies of a map of your school, about 14 per class, including buildings and grounds. A glass aquarium or large clear glass bowl for Danny the Drip interactive story. Borrow a free macro monitoring kit from NRM Education which contains 10 nets, macro-viewers, trays,

and other useful equipment. Ideally you want one net per two students. Or, Make your own nets (see attachment One) and use 6-7 white ice-cream containers, plastic spoons

and print off the macro identification charts. Or, purchase nets from a known supplier. Watch an instructional video by clicking here. Optional: Videoflex TV Microscope or Smart Board microscope.

Activity 1: Beginning the water discussion (classroom)Materials: pencils, paper cut in the shape of a cloud for writing ideas, and a smart board.Duration: 20-35 minutes.Divide children into small groups for the purpose of a discussion and sharing. Pose the question ‘Where does water go when it rains?’ Children work in small groups to share what they know about rain and where it goes when it falls.

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Groups of 3 or 4 are given paper from a roll cut out in a cloud shape. They draw, write and share ideas in their groups for 5-10 minutes. Each group shares one idea with the rest of the class and they can circle an idea once it is shared. Do 2 or 3 rounds until all their ideas are recorded on a Smart Board.

Providing students with knowledge about where rain goes is a good starting point for your inquiry. Display the clouds in the classroom. Explain to the students that next lesson you will be finding out where the water goes when it rains at school. Suggest they may want to talk to their families about where water goes at their house and street. Encourage them to investigate and share what they find.

Tip: the clouds could be made into a learning piece that can be put on display around the classroom

Activity 2: Taking the discussion outside (classroom and outside)Materials: map of the school and the grounds that children can record on, clipboards, recording sheet, chalkDuration: 5 minutes to set challenge leading up to the activity which will take between 20-35 minutes.Set students a challenge called ‘where does the water go when it rains?’ the day or week before the lesson to find places on buildings and in the school grounds where water collects or runs when it rains. In the classroom before you explore the school grounds, put a copy of the map on your Smart Board.

Before heading out explain they are going to be detectives searching for anywhere that water travels through or is stored (such as down pipes or gutters). It doesn’t matter if it hasn’t rained, there will be clues. Identify some of the possible clues (such as gutters and low points in the school).

Together help students to orientate their map so they know where they are before you leave the classroom. On the hunt mark these clues with a cross or a line on the map as you walk around. Allow students to take turns to share their knowledge and any recess or lunch research they have done. When they get back to the classroom count how many different rain collection points they found. They can do a simple recount of what they did using the map. Once this has been done students can add the water collection points they found to the school map on the Smart Board. This can be saved and printed off for your classroom display. Tip: to assist students, you can do some research before the lesson to find down-pipes, water channels, underground pipes and any low lying wetland areas.

Activity 3: The Story of Danny the Drip (classroom)Materials: Danny the Drip teacher notes and story (Attachment 2), large see-through bowl or aquarium to fill with water, props such as dirt, dye, chip packets, and plastic. Or click here for teachers’ notes and here for the story pack. The activity requires a letter for parent/caregiver (Attachment 2) to encourage students to bring in something for the lesson and to begin the discussion at home. Ensure all can contribute by having spare ‘props’. Duration: Reading time in preparation for lesson 20 minutes, sending a letter home prior to lesson for students 15 minutes, lesson 45 minutes to 1 hour.This story helps students understand what makes freshwater healthy and unhealthy. Prepare the class for Danny the Drip by discussing with students the concepts of water catchment areas and pollution. Display the Water, Learning and Living poster or a map of your local catchment and explore the definition of a catchment i.e. an area of land that catches water and drains it to the lowest point; usually a creek, river or ocean.

Ask students to name things we will find in the local catchment. List these as NATURAL, such as plants, animals, hills and creeks or ARTIFICIAL/HUMAN-MADE, such as, buildings, roads, cars and boats.

Explain that rain travels across or past all these things on its way to the river; some things may become polluted as they get washed along with the rain water. Organise students to bring in the pollutants for the story (refer to the accompanying pollution preparation notes)

The Danny the Drip session outlineStep 1 Interactive story telling

1. Students sit with their container of pollution in front of them (don’t shake or open).2. A clear container of water is placed at the front of the class.3. Before reading the story instruct students to remember each type of pollutant mentioned in the Danny

the Drip story, take note of how it gets into the river and think of ways it can be prevented.4. As each pollutant is mentioned, the student(s) who have that pollutant in their canister are invited to

come out to the front and pour it into the container of water (stir if necessary).

When finished, share in small groups or get the children to reflect on why Danny was so sad at the end of the story. They could also write and draw about the story. Encourage students to ask questions about the story. Following students’ reflections, explain you have a new challenge for them. They can be detectives again and

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find out about all the Danny in their local waterways, wetlands, or places in their back yard. Next lesson they will explore where the Danny goes once he has fallen at school, home, and everywhere else in the community.

Clean up1. Ask students to think of the best way to dispose of the polluted water and the containers used to collect

pollution.2. Use rubber gloves or a sieve to remove solid waste and sort into rubbish or compost.3. Pour liquid onto the garden.4. Wash then reuse or recycle jars and film canisters.

Tip: students can document their learnings as a written or art-based piece to enable a greater understanding of the topic.

Tip: When being detectives encourage students to take photos – these may be used in a class collage or in parent newsletter.

Activity 4: Healthy or unhealthy? Exploring the health of a waterway through ‘natural clues’ (classroom)Materials: Smart Board or a way to record student ideas in a table/chartDuration: 45 minutes.Ask students to identify the features of the waterways and discuss why these natural places are special and need to be taken care of. With students, create a chart/poster ‘what makes a freshwater site healthy or unhealthy?’ (example below).If needed the following questions may help with students' responses:

If you painted a healthy picture of creek what would you include? Would we find animals in a healthy creek? What types of animals? If you were an animal in a creek what would you need to live?

What makes a creek healthy or unhealthy? Healthy? Unhealthy?e.g. lots of plants and animals around the water is flowing lots of frogs fresh water

e.g. lots of litter not many plants there the water is still and smelly polluted water

Refer back to the story of Danny the Drip and what made the water unhealthy for further ideas. Explain and reinforce with students that the variety (diversity) of plants and animals living in a place is a good way of deciding if a creek is healthy – this diversity is known as biodiversity. Some may also know that frogs are sensitive to pollution and can be a good clue that water is healthy if they can be heard or seen.

Ask students to identify and represent one of the elements in and around a waterway e.g. trees, reeds, insects, macroinvertebrates, sun, water. With students standing in a circle, throw a ball of wool from one person to another as they each identify the links between the elements in the waterway. For example, the trees provide shade to the water; the water is where the macroinvertebrates live. This activity provides a visual picture of the interconnected nature of the waterway. Explain to students that this represents the ecosystem of the waterway.

Explain to the children that we cannot tell how healthy water is by looking at it. Animals that give us a clue that an environment is healthy are called bio-indicators. Bio meaning natural or living and indicator meaning clue. An easier way to describe bio-indicators may be to use the term ‘natural or living clues’. Water bugs are natural clues to knowing if a creek is healthy. Tell students that looking at water bugs is exciting and the next few lessons will cover this.

Tip: There are activities and information around frogs that may work in well with establishing a connection to the local waterway.

Tip: Students may also make posters or drawings to represent healthy and unhealthy waterways (Attachment 3 provides a sample creek diagram).

Activity 5: Exploring freshwater creatures and what bio-indicator creatures are (classroom)Materials: Copies of the Junior Aquatic Invertebrate ID chart (see resources) for each group, a class set of cards with 24 individual, named macroinvertebrates (Attachment 4). Duration: 45 mins-1 hour.

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This lesson will introduce students to the features and names of individual macroinvertebrates and how their level of tolerance to pollution levels tells us how healthy or polluted the water is.

Discuss the importance of healthy waterways to people, plants and wildlife. For example, water is important for plants to grow on the side of the creek, wildlife to drink from and also plants and wildlife in the water. From the last lesson we started to discuss water bugs. Water bugs are also called aquatic macroinvertebrates. Write this term on the board and explain what macroinvertebrates means.

Give out a card with a macroinvertebrate on it to each student. Organise students into groups of three or four so they can talk about what they like or think is interesting about their creature. Compare water bugs and talk about differences between them (i.e. are their legs different? are their body shapes different?).

Rotate the groups so they can see the different creatures that they may find. If students feel comfortable ask them to share with the whole group about what they liked about their creature. Show the diagram of a creek in attachment three that has different habitat zones (homes) for water bugs. These include the surface of the water, in the water, bottom of the water, between or on the plants, still water, fast-flowing (not seen in diagram), shallow and deep water, and under rocks.

Ask students to look at their creature and to see what colour the name is. Some may have already noticed the Pollution Sensitivity rating on the Macro ID Chart (right). Go through each of the colours asking students to put up their hand when their colour writing is called out. Ask them if they know what the colours might mean, give them a minute to talk amongst themselves. Bring up the Junior ID Chart onto the Smart Board and share the pollution sensitivity rating section. Explain those with green and blue ratings are sensitive to pollution and if they are found in freshwater samples it means the water is fairly healthy and there are low levels of pollution. Conversely orange and red means that the bugs don’t mind/tolerate living in unhealthy water.

Tip: these colours do not mean the creatures are good or bad (i.e. green bugs aren't better than red bugs) they simply indicate a bug's ability to survive in polluted water.

Activity 6: Collecting and observing macroinvertebrates from a local site (outside and/or classroom) Materials: Borrow a free macro monitoring kit from NRM Education which contains 10 nets, macro-viewers, trays, and other useful equipment. Ideally you want one net per two students. Or Make your own nets and use 6 -7 white ice-cream containers, plastic spoons and print off the macro identification charts OR purchase nets from a known supplier. If taking back to the classroom from a waterway off-site you will need two buckets with lids to transport (lids are essential as they will spill in vehicle). If walking back to the school and taking water back several buckets will be needed and only quarter full (as they can get heavy). Macros must be taken back to the site. If you are new to water sampling, watch the clip before you go to your site and/or read the NRM Education teacher info pack on how to conduct macro invertebrate sampling.Collecting for students: If getting students to a site is not possible then you can collect them yourself and bring to class. You will need access to a freshwater site, a net and 2 buckets with lids. Note: If you are new to water testing, click here to view an 8-minute video on techniques. See attachment six for a list of local wetlands that you might like to visit to collect macroinvertebrates. The NRM Education information pack (13 pages) provides all the information you need for sampling macroinvertebrates.

Duration: collecting with students and assessing results on-site 1-2 hours, collecting with students to take back to the classroom (30-40 minutes), collecting for students (15-20 minutes).

If you collect the water yourself: take photos of the waterway. Show these photos to the class. Explain to students that you have collected macro invertebrates to determine how healthy a local waterway is. If you can, draw and discuss the site and some of the animals and plants you see (see diagram). Explain where in the waterway you collected the bugs from and link this to the different places bugs live.

If you go on a class excursion: Explain to the students that we will be collecting macro invertebrates to see how healthy a local waterway is. Ask students where are they going to scoop their nets? We want to collect bugs from all the different places that they live. Ask the students what are we going to need to be careful of? Begin the sampling!

Set up the water samples from your site in trays so students can easily collect and place them in bug viewers. They can use spoons to catch creatures to place in bug viewers. If back at school set up your school's videoflex

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camera or Smart Board camera so you can share the creatures that students find. Put out some laminated copies of the Junior ID Chart for students to use if interested in creature identification.

Remind students to be careful with the bugs as we are respectful and careful with living creatures. Always have enough water in the viewers. Make sure the students are only using spoons to pick up the bugs (not fingers or pipettes).

Provide students with time to explore the water in the trays to see the variety of different animals they have collected. Encourage them to describe the creatures using language from their descriptions in the previous lesson e.g. fast, tiny, crawling, with legs, tails, feelers. Ask students to take notice of how many of each type of bug there is in the tray, 1 to 3, 4 to 10, or more than 10. Move around the groups asking students to point out different types of bugs. Collect them in an ice cube tray.

To finish this lesson, bring students together and share the creatures found using the television / Smart Board / ID chart (depending if you are in the classroom or on site). Explain to the students the different features and behaviours and how these help the creature find food, catch its prey or keep it from being caught. Ask the students if they found 1 to 3, 4 to 10, or more than 10 of this type of bug? Graph the results. Explain the next lesson will be spent trying to work out if the water collected was healthy or unhealthy and the data collected so far will help to work this out.

After the class, record what they found and the number of creatures in the sample. If there are hundreds of tiny creatures record this too. You can use this data in a number of ways to demonstrate diversity of creatures found.

Activity 7: What is the quality of the water? Is it healthy or unhealthy for water bugs? (classroom)Materials: 24 Macro invertebrate cards, smart board, photocopy recording sheet for each student (attachment five), ID chart, and colouring pencilsDuration: 20 minutes.Using the 24 water macroinvertebrate cards and data collected from your water samples you are going to determine the quality of the freshwater habitat. Identify which creatures you found and their numbers in the sample. Have copies of the recording sheets on the tables.

Water bugs are a bio-indicator for the health of a creek. We are going to analyse what we found at our local waterway to decide if the waterway is healthy or not. To decide if the water was healthy or unhealthy look at all the evidence: Ask the students to look at the ratings on the ID chart. Ask them if they can remember what the colours mean. Remind them that green and blue ratings are sensitive to pollution. Conversely orange and red means that the bugs tolerate/don’t mind living in unhealthy water. Ask the students to colour in the bugs with their associated rating colour. Once they have done this, ask the students to count how many are from each colour rating.

Together look at the collection of creatures found from your freshwater site and those that we know will leave if the water is unhealthy. Ask the students were any of these sensitive creatures found i.e. green and blue? What does it mean if these were found and what might it mean if these weren’t found? Also ask the students how many bugs in each category were found? Were there more sensitive bugs or tolerant bugs? Students can talk in pairs or small groups and record what they think. Each group or pair is given the opportunity to share their ideas.

Ask the whole class do they think their local waterway is healthy or unhealthy?

Activity 8: How healthy is our site and taking action to improve the quality of our local freshwater? (classroom)Materials: Danny the Drip book, what makes a site healthy or unhealthy? Posters and recording sheets.Duration: 30 minutes.Helping students to be aware of their local freshwater sites and the positive actions they and others can take promotes an optimistic approach to caring for special places in the natural environment. Being able to respond through action to discoveries and investigations empowers students and gives them confidence that their actions can make a difference.

Ask students to refer to the ‘What makes a site healthy or unhealthy?’ poster/table. Did they notice any of these things at the site? Ask students what could we do to make the creek healthier? Start a list of ideas.

Remind students of what materials were put into the waterways with the Danny the Drip activity. Ask students how could we stop these materials from going into the waterways?Ideas include:

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Gutter Guardians activity litter pick up campaign and bag provision to encourage people to pick up their dog’s poo education around fertilisers and detergents and better alternatives for our waterways contact local community Landcare groups to see if they would like some student assistance with

revegetation projects at freshwater sites.

If you are unable to take action in the waterway, consider actions that can be undertaken in the school grounds. Ideas include:

Planning a group activity for World Environment Day, Clean Up Australia Day or National Water Week to help clean up pollution in the local area.

Share pollution solutions with the school community through a poster display. Designing a frog pond or bog garden. This would be a great student initiated project. Students could put

together a proposal and seek the approval of the school community. Investigating the opportunity to make a mini-wetland. There are guidelines and funding grants available

through NRM Education. Grow some local plants to be planted near or in the local waterway. Contact local community Landcare groups to see if they would like to assist in some of the students'

initiatives at school. Checking if the school already has an action group and a School Environment Management Plan and

joining in with their actions.

Collate the students’ ideas and have a vote for the most popular (and practical) actions. Seek support from the school community to action them.

Ideas for sharing their learning and seeking support from others include: Writing an article for the school’s newsletter about caring for special places, discoveries made and the

actions the school community could take to improve the quality of the water going into drains and local creeks and wetlands.

Preparing an item for school assembly to share student investigations and proposed actions people can take to care for places by improving the quality of water in the local community.

End of lesson sequence reflection: Provide students with an opportunity to reflect on what they enjoyed, their investigations, discoveries and actions they have taken, or plan to take as individuals, as a result of their learning. You may choose to do this by providing a reflection sheet for them to complete. Students could also be interviewed answering a question and these could be compiled together and shared. You could use your assembly item and/or school newsletter article as a way of reflecting on this learning sequence.

Extension activities Explore water pipes [includes spoken instructions] – Click here to view the Scootle resource

TLF ID L18 This is a Scootle Resource and can be explored on a Smart Board as another way to see where water goes when it leaves rivers, wetland and dams. This interactive and talking resource traces a city's water supply and wastewater

Students can collect and test water samples from a dam, treatment plant, pumping station, house, sewage treatment plant and creek outfall. They compare the water clarity and purity at each location

Explore dreaming stories that relate to water. Thukeri is a local story about caring for the environment. Thukeri - A Ngarrindjeri Dreaming Story – Click here for a transcript of the story as told by Leila Rankine as well as a lesson plan by Carolyn Gyss

Buddy opportunities – Work with a buddy class, either with the local Kindy/Preschool or older buddy classes. With younger buddies, students can go to a local creek or wetland and share their investigations. They can collect water samples and come back and investigate what they have found using the bug viewers. This could be an end of unit activity where students share their investigations and learning

Card and board game activities – click here to view the games. The card games cover topics such as identification and classification, lifecycles, feeding strategies and pollution sensitivity of aquatic invertebrates

Interview a macroinvertebrate – Students research a macroinvertebrate each, prepare notes and then interview each other or create a ‘This is your Life’ series for these. This would allow life cycles to be investigated and stories to be shared about what happens if water is polluted or healthy

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Crossword puzzles – Make macroinvertebrate or wetland crossword puzzles using Puzzlemaker . These are excellent for teachers to create or older buddies where crosswords can be made to support learning around key themes

Use graphic organisers to explore macroinvertebrates including Venn diagrams to compare different FW macroinvertebrates, find similarities and differences

A fun Smart Board Scootle interactive with a spoken version is Where do frogs lay their eggs? TLF ID L17 | Years F–2. Students examine permanent and temporary bodies of water. They learn about native frog life-cycles and consider the suitability of these water bodies as places where a frog could lay its eggs.

Macroinvertebrate pictures - If the students are interested in looking more closely at the details of the aquatic creatures, print off a set of Water Macroinvertebrate A4 Big Cards here .

Extension activities for Danny the Drip Use the Danny the Drip picture series as you tell the story and stick them on the board. Start the lesson by

drawing a catchment on the board (include hills, creeks flowing into a river and then wind this river through a town or city and then out to the sea). As you read through the story and mention each kind of pollution stick each picture with blue tack onto the board in an appropriate place e.g. in the hills or in the city). At the end of the story ask students to think of ways that we can stop each of the kinds of pollution from entering waterways.

Develop your own class Danny the Drip story. Ask each student to prepare a page describing how their kind of pollution entered the river.

Demonstrate the importance of water to all living things using a variety of media e.g. posters, plays, models.

Create a poster or PowerPoint presentation illustrating the journey of water from rain to households and then to rivers and seas.

Use dance and music to tell the story of human impact on catchment water quality.

What might fast food packaging look like in the future? Design your own.

Make daily/weekly observations of your school yard to record the types and amounts of litter. Represent your results visually and share them with other classes.

Use brainstorming and group techniques to generate pollution solutions then create a Top 10 list of actions to reduce water pollution.

Create role plays to explore different views on who is responsible for pollution.

Create your own catchment care performance to explain water catchment and pollution solutions to others.

’If I had a Waterwatch Magic Wand.’ Present/create a story to describe what changes you would make to improve water quality in your catchment.

Draw the kinds of things people do that impact on water quality.

Design a ’Waste Coat’ using materials you would find floating in the river.

Resources Junior ID charts, click here Danny the Drip, click here (1.4Mb pdf) and Danny the Drip Teachers Notes (80Kb doc) click here NRM Education has a great range of resources and equipment that can be borrowed to support your

inquiry into freshwater habitats and water macroinvertebrates. Click here to view the resource list.

Water – click here to view the Learning and Living poster. This poster has been designed to depict the range of water and catchments issues in South Australia

Catchment education teacher information pack. Click here to view the information pack. It is designed for PY students but is a valuable reference for EY’s teachers

Discovering wetlands in Australia is a curriculum resource for primary school students in Years 3-6. Click here to view the resource.

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Global Education published a free resource click here titled Water on Earth, A Primary Schools Water Resource with activities, resources and Australian Curriculum references. Chapter 3 Water for all Living things is most supportive of this topic

SA Water’s Brave Wave program, library with DVDs, interactive CDs, games, books and posters, online resources and information can be found by clicking here.

Primary Connections: Foundation, Staying alive; Year 1, Schoolyard safari; Year 2, Watch it grow.

Attachments Attachment one - Make your own net

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Attachment two: Danny the Drip teacher notes and storyDanny the Drip is an interactive story that describes a journey from the top to the bottom of the local water catchment, looking at land uses and the potential pollution they produce. During the story students are invited to add their 'home-made pollution' to a water filled aquarium. By the end of the catchment journey the water is very smelly and visually polluted. This story names the River Torrens; however it can be adapted for any river in the Adelaide, Mount Lofty Ranges region. The teacher notes provide discussion points and extension activities.Materials: Clear container of water (aquarium) Stick or spoon for stirring The story text Pollution (See: ‘Pollution Preparation Notes’) Lined rubbish bin Cleanup cloth Rubber gloves Danny the Drip story pictures

Danny the Drip – the story

1. This is the story of Danny the Drip, a drop of water- and his journey down a very special river, the Torrens River, all the way to the ocean. Along the way Danny sees many things which pollute the river and it makes him angry. Will you remember all the things that happen?2. Danny the Drip journey starts his journey as a tiny drop of water that falls from the sky when it rains. Yippee! As Danny lands with a thud, he realises that he has reached the land. Danny falls in a small town way up in the hills where the rain runs off the slopes and hills and into the river.3. Up here, the river is small, like a creek, and the water is clean and clear. Danny is having a great time going around bends, past trees and over rocks.4. Then he starts going past farms where there are lots of cows, The cows are walking around, in the river, drinking the river water and eating the river plants. While they are eating and drinking, the cows are pooing straight into the water!5. The farmers have also been fertilising the pasture to help it grow for the cows to eat. After the rain, a lot of the fertiliser got washed down into the river.6. One of the farm dogs has also done a big poo, which has been washed by the rain into the river. Yuck! All that fertiliser and poo is food for algae which grows and grows and grows. Poor Danny the Drip, his water is now green and smelly!!7. After lots of bends, past lots of hills, Danny the Drip finally reaches the edge of the city of Adelaide. There are many street trees and, instead of raking up the leaves and putting them into a compost bin, people are letting the rain water wash them straight down the drain. This water goes underground in the stormwater pipes and comes out into the river. All the leaves are making the water brown and Danny’s friends, the fish, are finding their gills are getting clogged up with little bits of leaf.8. Danny the Drip notices one of the factories near the river has a pipe coming from it that leads straight into the river. When he takes a closer look he sees that there are all sorts of toxic chemicals coming out the pipe. “This is just terrible,” thinks Danny “don’t people realise what they are doing to my home?”9. As he continues his journey to the sea, Danny the Drip sees a group of people enjoying a picnic at a park on the edge of the river. The people have not been bothered to put their rubbish in the bin so the next gust of wind blows some of the rubbish down into the river. Danny is really sad now. He can’t believe how careless some people can be- it would have been much better for the people to put the rubbish into a bin.10. As Danny the Drip passes through the suburbs on the other side of the city he notices some new houses being built. The shrubs and grass have been scraped away and when it rains, the top layer of soil washes straight into the river, making it dirty and muddy. Danny also spots someone emptying their saltwater swimming pool straight down the stormwater drain. With all this mud and salt Danny the Drip can’t see where he is going anymore. He bumps his head on rocks and gets tangled up in the leaves and branches. This is very scary for Danny and he wishes people were more careful.

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11. Further downstream Danny the Drip spots a truck. The truck needs a service because the engine in leaking oil directly into the lake. “Oh dear”, thinks Danny the Drip, the ducks & other birds are going to be in trouble when that smelly, black oil sticks to their feathers.12. Further along, there are houses right next to the river and Danny can see a person mowing their lawn, but they are not putting their grass clippings into a bag, instead they are shaking the clippings all over the fence and they are washing straight into the river! Oh no! Thinks Danny, when grass sits in water, it breaks down and uses up all of the oxygen and many of my plant and animal friends will die.13. People who have spent the day at work are now starting to drive home. The roads are full of traffic. Petrol drips out of the cars and if they brake in a hurry, their tyres screech and leave black rubber behind on the road. Every time it rains the petrol and rubber are washed off the road down the stormwater drains and straight into the river.14. Danny the Drip is feeling very sick from all the pollution coming into the river but he still continues his trip. He notices someone washing their car in the driveway. All the detergent they are using is getting hosed straight into the gutter and running into the river. The detergent has chemicals in it that hurt Danny's friends and is poisonous for the tadpoles. Why couldn’t they wash their car on the lawn?15. After one last bend in the river Danny the Drip finally arrives at the sea. Look at the water that flows out to sea with him. It is full of smelly, disgusting, poisonous pollution. The pollution is going to hurt all the animals and plants that live in the ocean.What can we do to help make our rivers cleaner? Danny needs your help.Pollution preparation notes - an exciting journey through the catchmentTelling the story of Danny the Drip requires a little help from your students! Students will need to prepare small amounts of imitation water pollution. We suggest that you use small jars or film canisters to hold the pollution and emphasize the importance of not collecting the actual pollutants in certain cases such as; petrol, poo and toxic chemicals. Below is a list of the different types of pollution mentioned in the story and how to prepare them. You may like to give each student a type of pollution to prepare for homework or ask students to bring in the materials and then prepare them in class.

Making imitation pollution

Pollution Ingredients Preparation

GRASS Lawn clippings Collect

LEAVES Fallen leaves (preferably non-native) Collect

ALGAE Lettuce Soak in hot water

ANIMAL POO Play dough, mud or chocolate topping Not the real thing please

SALT Table salt

SOIL Dirt or fine sand Collect

RUBBISH Litter – plastic chip packets, paper etc Collect

FERTILISER Tea leaves and sugar or sago Mix together

DETERGENT Dishwashing or laundry liquid

CHEMICALS Mustard or Tomato sauce Mix with water

OIL Soy sauce and cooking oil Mix

PETROL Vinegar

RUBBER Rubber bands

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Danny the dripDear Parent / Caregiver,Our class will be reading the story of Danny the Drip. This is an interactive story describing a journey from the top to the bottom of the local water catchment, looking at land uses and the potential pollution they produce. During the story students are invited to add their 'home-made pollution' to a water filled aquarium. By the end of the catchment journey the water is very smelly and visually polluted. We would like your help in preparing small amounts of imitation pollution for this interactive story.

_____________________________‘s pollution is _____________________

Materials needed to make it are ___________________________________

Please return imitation pollution in a labelled jar or film canister by: ________

Thank you for your help.

Attachment three: Creek diagram

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Attachment four: Macroinvertebrate cut outs (Images adapted from ‘Critter Catalogue: a guide to the aquatic invertebrates of South Australian inland waters (2004 EPA)’.) Click here to view PDF’s of the illustrations below.

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Attachment five: Macroinvertebrate recording sheet

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Macroinvertebrate Tally

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very tolerant (1-3)

freshwater snail (1)

back swimmer (1)

leech (1)

mosquito larva (1)

mosquito pupa (1)

flatworm (2)

diving beetle (2)

segmented worm (2)

water boatman (2)

non-biting midge larva (3)

scud (3)

shrimp (3)

damselfly larva (3)

dragonfly larva (3)

water scorpion (3)

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tolerant (4-5)

yabby (4)

biting midge larva (4)

sensitive (6-7)

water mite (6)

very sensitive (8-10)

caddisfly larva (8)

mayfly larva (9)

stonefly larva (10)

not rated (NR)

water flea (NR)

seed shrimp (NR)

copepod (NR)

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Attachment six: Local wetlands

Torrens Catchment

Breakout Creek Wetland – Henley Beach Rd, Lockleys Apex Park Wetland – Burbridge Rd, Henley Beach St Peters Billabong – River St, St Peters Barker Inlet Wetlands – Salisbury Highway, Wingfield Range Wetlands – Bedford St, Gillman Magazine Wetlands – Hanson Rd, Wingfield Roy Amer Reserve – Ross Smith Drive, Oakden Northgate Reserve – Folland Ave, Northfield 

Patawalonga Catchment

Allan Scott Park – Morphettville Racecourse Wetland - Morphett Road, Morphettville Warriparinga Wetland – cnr Marion Rd and Sturt Rd, Bedford Park Urrbrae Wetland – Cross Rd, Netherby Frank Smith Wetland – Frank Smith Reserve, Coromandel Valley

Onkaparinga and other Southern Adelaide catchments

Brodie Road Wetlands – Brodie Rd, Morphett Vale Port Noarlunga Wetlands – River Rd, Noarlunga Downs Byards Road Wetlands – Byards Road, Reynella East Woorabinda Wetland – Woorabinda Drive, Stirling Mt George Wetland – Mt George Conservation Park picnic grounds, Mt George Clarendon Recreation Ground – Nicolle Road, Clarendon

Northern Adelaide and Barossa

Greenfields Wetland – Salisbury Highway, Greenfields Little Para Wetlands – Port Wakefield Rd, Bolivar Whites Road Wetland – Globe Derby Park Kaurna Park Wetland – Waterloo Corner Rd, Direk Salisbury North Wetland – Happy Home Reserve The Paddocks Wetland – Bridge Rd, Para Hills Pine Lakes Wetland – Springwood Ave, Parafield Gardens Clonlea Park – Gawler Stebonheath Road Wetland – Andrews Farm Lake Windermere – Holstein Drive, Salisbury North 

This resource was developed by a teacher with the support of the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board through its NRM Education program. Your local NRM Education Officer provides support for sustainability initiatives at your school. These include learning more about sustainability, environmental auditing, and developing biodiversity, nature-play or food gardens. Click here to view our website.