Inquiry - Mini-beasts - What are they and why are they important to our world?

This is our science-based inquiry for Term 4 of 2013: I have a sub-question of: Which mini-beasts will be most beneficial to our school garden and how will we attract them to it?

"In all things in nature there is something of the marvellous."

 - Aristotle, a Greek dude from a really long time ago! (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)

Key understandings: Big ideas/Key concepts:

• Recognise that there are many living things in the world and they can be grouped in different ways.

•  Creatures within groups have specific types of features.

•  Mini-beasts are important parts of the food chain.

• Mini-beasts have varied habitats.

• Mini-beasts have important roles in our world’s ecosystems

Core knowledge: Baseline knowledge:
·         There are different types of mini-beasts eg insects, exoskeletons, arachnids, molluscs etc.
·     Mini-beasts live through life cycles.
·     Mini-beasts can be found on land and in water.
·     Mini-beasts have different body features such as legs, body parts, etc and habits eg egg laying, web spinning.
·     Mini-beasts play an important role in Nature’s food chains e.g. pollination, decomposition.


Key Competency:  Me as an e-learner

Skills: Research

Strategies: summarising of info/ideas, presenting of ideas/info

e-learning:  use of Aurasma on ipads, PowerPoint/Explain Everything, Book Creator/My Story, embedding videos into own blogs

Maori integration: Maori names for native insects

Resources: SparkleBox search results       Pinterest search for mini-beast pins

Week 1: First we will spend time immersing ourselves in our prior knowledge 

and building up new knowledge.  

We will identify our Let's Act goal (the beneficial insects for the garden) and keep that in mind as we build up our knowledge:

• A clip of photos taken by the members of National Geographic Kids' website.
• BBC Our Planet video clip - a great intro to animals with no backbone (may need latest FlashPlayer)
• A great unit full of starter activities - classification, life cycles, habitats.
• Nature Detectives - mini-beast hunts.
• An interactive where children create their own Super Bug while reading about various features of insects.
• Take the mini-beast quiz or read about mini-beasts/arachnids/insects/other mini-beast groups.
• Read simple information about mini-beasts and watch more BBC clips of different mini-beasts.
• All sorts of information and fantastic photos (also teacher resources)
• Some general mini-beast info from the Scholastic website

Flipped? These are the pages for the children to use independently on our classroom blog as they continue to build up their baseline understandings:

• It's a Bug's Life - who am I? (general introduction to mini-beasts)
• It's a Bug's Life - who is who? (classification)
• It's a Bug's Life - who eats who? (food chains)
• It's a Bug's Life - what's my address? (habitats)
• It's a Bug's Life - all in the family! (life cycles)
• It's a Bug's Life - the coolest bug for me! (research a specific mini-beast of choice)