Make a wanted poster
In this activity, students use their skills of observation and scientific drawing to make a wanted poster for an insect. Included on the poster is a description of the features of their insect and details of where it might be found.
How to name organisms
Dr Peter Buchanan, Dr Robert Hoare and Rosa Henderson of Landcare Research NZ Ltd, describe the process of naming a new organism. They talk about when scientists are allowed to name an organism and what details need to be known about a new species.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
confidently describe and document the features of an insect
explain why careful observation is an important skill for scientists.
Download the Word file for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do
extension idea.
Related content
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. After gathering data, they worked on creating flyers to share their learning.
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.
Learn about bringing insects into your classroom in our PLD webinar All about insects featuring entomologists Dr Chrissie Painting and Tom Saunders.
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.
In Insect mihi, students write a formal introduction for an insect species including its relationship to other animals and the land.
