Science and Technology K–6 · Year 6

Schoolyard habitats: measuring physical conditions and counting who lives there

Science understanding: Biological sciences

PracticalMedium risk

School laboratory, not for home

In a school laboratory, with a teacher supervising, under the school's risk assessment. Not for home.

The idea

Places a few metres apart in one schoolyard have measurably different temperature, light and soil moisture, and the number and kinds of small animals living in each follow those physical conditions.

Safety card

Medium riskA teacher supervises

Setting: In a school laboratory, with a teacher supervising, under the school's risk assessment. Not for home.

Hazards

bites and stings from ants, bull ants and spiders
sting allergy and anaphylaxis
sharp objects or needles hidden in litter
sun exposure

Controls

an adult walks each site for sharps first
gloves on and no bare hands under logs or into holes
animals moved with a paintbrush and jar, never fingers
anaphylaxis action plans and adrenaline autoinjectors on hand
every animal returned to its spot within 30 minutes
hats, sunscreen and shade breaks

Note

Risk assessment before the lesson using Primary RiskAssess or the school's own template.

What you need

3 sites chosen with the teacher: mown grass in full sun, shade under trees with leaf litter, and a mulched garden bed
3 quadrats of 1 m x 1 m, each made from 4 m of string and 4 tent pegs
a digital probe thermometer reading to 0.1 degrees Celsius (air at 1 m and soil at 5 cm depth)
a light meter, or a tablet light-meter app, reading in lux
a garden soil-moisture probe, or 3 zip bags and a kitchen balance for a weigh, dry and reweigh test
a ribbon taped to a 1 m stick to rate wind as still, fluttering or streaming
a white tray, a soft paintbrush, hand lenses and 6 specimen jars with ventilated lids
a 2 L ice-cream container for a level litter or topsoil sample
the Australian Museum leaf litter key or BugWise invertebrate guide, printed
gardening gloves, hats and sunscreen

How to do it

At the same time of day at each site, measure air temperature at 1 m, soil temperature at 5 cm, light at ground level and soil moisture. Take three readings of each and record the mean.
Peg out a quadrat at each site. Search the surface inside it for exactly 10 minutes, then tip one level 2 L container of litter or topsoil from inside it onto the white tray.
Brush each animal into a jar with the paintbrush, identify it to a group with the key (for example ant, slater, millipede, spider, beetle, earthworm), count it and return it to the spot it came from.
Record the physical readings and the counts for all three sites in one table: number of animals and number of different groups.
Repeat the whole survey on a hot dry afternoon and on the morning after rain.
Graph the number of animals against soil moisture and against soil temperature, one point per site per day.
Write a claim about which physical condition best matches where the animals were found, using your numbers as evidence, and say what you would change to make the survey fairer.

What you should see

On a sunny day the mown grass is the brightest, warmest and driest site: a light meter in direct sun reads tens of thousands of lux (direct sunlight is about 32,000 to 100,000 lux) while the litter under trees reads far less, and the soil there is cooler and damper. The expected pattern is that the shaded litter holds the most animals and the most groups (slaters, millipedes, springtails, beetles, spiders) and the mown grass the fewest, mostly ants; the class's counts decide. The readings are trustworthy when the three repeat readings at a site agree (temperature within about 1 degree, light within about 10 percent); whether animal counts follow soil moisture on both days is the finding, not a test of the survey.

What changes

What you change: site (and the weather on the survey day)
What you measure: number of animals and number of different groups found
What you keep the same: quadrat size
10-minute search time
2 L sample volume
time of day
same key and the same searchers

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

Animals live wherever there is food, whatever the temperature or moisture.
The sunny grass and the shade are the same temperature because the air feels the same.
A place where no animals are visible has none (most shelter under litter during the day).

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), current, taught until 2026; code read from the syllabus document on 22 September 2026ST3-4LW-S ST3-1WS-S
Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), implemented from 2027; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare and 2027 start teaching, and schools may choose to implement it during 2026; code read from the outcomes page on 22 September 2026ST3-DAT-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9S6U01AC9S6I02AC9S6I03AC9S6I04

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

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