Episode 4
In Episode 4 of The Seed Pod Spencer shares stories about freshwater macroinvertebrates, dinosaurs, paleoart, scuba diving, eDNA, and the benefits of nature connection as a neurodivergent individual!
We are going to dive deeper into one of his stories in this Learning Pod using a Play - Observe - Discover - Share structure.
Observe
In Spencer’s story, he shares about river ecosystems and some of the cool critters that can be used as tohu/signs to monitor the health of that river. In this activity you will cut out a range of tohu/signs that could indicate either a healthy, or an unhealthy river ecosystem (all of the connected parts that make up an environment).
Once you have identified whether the tohu/sign would indicate a healthy or unhealthy environment you can paste them into the circles on our worksheets.
Then describe in the text box what a healthy river ecosystem should include, and what an unhealthy river ecosystem could include.
If you have a local river/stream you could visit this with your class or whānau.
Printable worksheets HERE.
River monitoring sheet that can help younger students HERE.
Answers to worksheets HERE.
Discover
Macroinvertebrates are small critters found in our freshwater systems that don’t have a backbone. E.g. snails, worms, larvae, bugs. These macroinvertebrates are indicator species, meaning they can be used to tell us whether a waterway is healthy or unhealthy.
Each freshwater macroinvertebrate species has been given a Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) score from 1-10 by scientists. These MCI scores tell us whether they can tolerate living in unhealthy waterways (lower scores), or need faster-flowing, healthy waterways to survive (higher scores).
We’ve created a game to introduce you to these sampling methods!
Give our MCI game a go HERE.
Share
Share your stories with us at: theseedpod@outlook.com
This is a place for sharing stories and contributions from our community.
Ryan’s Story:
"I had a trip to Great Barrier Island with school. It was such an amazing trip that allowed me to be deep in nature. We did something called coasteering, which is exploring the coast at sea level by climbing, jumping and swimming around the coast. We were able to check out little rock pool critters, and take in everything this beautiful little island had to offer. Such an incredible experience and so much fun flipping off the rocks into the water.”
- Ryan Moffitt
We hope you enjoyed this Learning Pod!
If you have any feedback or photos/stories/art to share please get in touch!
