Pest Species

This teaching and learning sequence is based on Laura Xin Lu Tan’s research involving monitoring raven predation activity on penguin eggs on the Summerlands beach in Phillip Island. This context will help students understand the long and short-term effects of predator organisms like ravens and introduced species on food webs and food chains. The lesson sequence is developed for Year 8 Biological Sciences and focuses on how Interactions between organisms can be described in terms of food chains and food webs and can be affected by human activity.

Students construct a food web of their local school ecosystem and consider human and pest impacts on various ecosystems. They develop their science inquiry skills in collecting and analysing data as well as communicating their findings.