Insect mihi
In this activity, students write a formal introduction for an insect species of their choice, including information about the insect’s relationship to other animals and also the land. This is designed to help them think about how the Linnaean classification system works.
Honouring the tangata whenua
Dr Peter Buchanan, Biosystematics Science Team Leader, and Koro Te Pania, Nga Puhi Kaumatua, talk about the development of a pare (door lintel) for Landcare Research's Tamaki site.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
discuss how simple classification works and why it’s useful
carry out research to find out more about an insect
present their mihi to the rest of the class.
Download the Word file for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do
student instructions.
Demonstrating science in action
Sharyn de Jonge, Pukekohe Hill School, talks about how she uses Hub resources as a follow-on from school camp and how the resources help Sharyn and her students study topics in greater depth. Sharyn finds the videos are an effective way to generate discussion and promote literacy.
To view the resources Sharyn used with her students, visit our Hidden taonga resources.
Note that this video shows footage from the old legacy Science Learning Hub website but all the resources referenced in this video are available on this website.
Related content
Explore What’s so special about insects?, Insects – physical characteristics and Aquatic insect life to find out more about insects.
Discover the wide range of our resources on insects, or explore the range of content under our invertebrates topic.
In the Connected article City of bugs, students teamed up with a scientist to find out which ecosystem in their city had the most invertebrates.
Use iNaturalist to help identify insects. Find out more how to use this citizen science project in your teaching.
Learn about bringing insects into your classroom in our PLD webinar All about insects featuring entomologists Dr Chrissie Painting and Tom Saunders.
Classification
Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research has a huge collection of insects. Find out more on naming species and classification systems used.
Activity ideas
Identifying bugs – with Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research’s easy-to-use web pages.
Moths – learn how to collect moths and how to rear them to observe their life cycle. Watch a video on rearing moths and then write a ‘how to’ guide in Rearing insects.
Observation: learning to see uses images of frogs to help students gain observation and inference skills – adapt this for insects.
Useful links
What is this bug? from Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research is a handy guide to common invertebrates of New Zealand.
Research your insect on Wikipedia.
