Ecosystem explorers incursion program

Teacher checklist

Location	Your school or bushland near your school
Cost	2025 DoE $25 per student - GST free 2025 Non-gov school cost $28 per student - GST free, minimum charge $750Schools are to confirm the number of students and classes at least 7 days prior to attending. Schools will be charged based on the number of students confirmed or number of students who attend on the day (whichever is greater).
Risk assessment	Risk management plan
School preparation	Ensure all class teachers have visited the site and are familiar with the route from school to it.
Welfare	Participants may be bushwalking during the day in rugged terrain. Toilets may only be available at the start and end of the day. This incursion may not be suitable for people who have recently been unwell.
Bring	Backpack, medication, low-waste food, water bottle, sunblock, raincoat, hat, sturdy shoes, mask. Students wear reusable name tag and sports uniform.
View	Preparing for an excursion
Supporting resources	Eucalypt Forest - available free from Apple Book Fact sheets
Bin access	All student waste to be taken home by students.
Parent/carer helpers	Optional one parent per class, no siblings. Closed shoes essential.
Medical or special needs	Notify Field of Mars staff prior to incursion. Students, staff and visitors must not attend if unwell, even with mild symptoms.
Extreme or wet weather	Days predicted to be above 35ºC, high winds, extreme bush fire danger and dust storms may result in the incursion being modified, postponed or cancelled.
Cancellations	Cancellations with less than 30 working school days notice will incur a $600 administration fee. Cancellations with less than 7 working school days notice will incur the full cost for the program based on the original booking. Cancellations due to weather or fire danger are exempt from fees.

Suggested timetable - for bushland site

Time	Activity
9.15 - 9.45	Introduction, toilets, crunch and sip Equipment bags distributed at school or bushland site
9.45 - 12.30	Bushwalk and activities, including recess
1.00 - 1.30	Lunch at bushland site
1.30 - 2.15	Bushwalk and activities
2.15 - 2.45	Pack up and head back to school

Suggested timetable - for school site

Time	Activity
9.15 - 11.00	Introduction Ecosystem investigation - small animals
11.00 - 11.30	Recess
11.30 - 1.00	Ecosystem investigation - habitats
1.00 - 2.00	Lunch
2.00 - 2.30	Food chains and ecosystem relationships

Learning activities

Working as ecologists students investigate the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere of local bushland.

Key questions

How are the needs of living things provided by Earth's systems?
What are the habitats and ecosystems within the natural area?
What are the living and non living components of a habitat?
How do plants and animals depend on each other?

Fieldwork

Students will undertake a walk through their school or a bushwalk though their local bushland reserve.

As they walk through diverse ecosystems, the young ecologists will observe various habitats, recording the interactions between living organisms and their non-living surroundings, such as soil, water and air.

We will acknowledge the practices of the Aboriginal Peoples in sustainably managing the environment.

Fieldwork tools will include sensory observation, invertebrate hunts, scientific equipment and recording through sketching, mapping, watercolour and tallies in their take-home field journal.

Students will also work independently guided by task cards catering for a variety of learning styles. Teachers will be encouraged to take photographs for student use back in the classroom.

Hands-on activities focusing on food chains and ecosystem relationships will conclude the day.

Syllabus outcomes and content

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024)

Physical and living systems depend on energy

Outcomes

Uses information to investigate the solar system and the effects of energy on living, physical and geological systems ST2-SCI-01
Uses and interprets data to describe patterns and relationships ST2-DAT-01

Content

Living things depend on energy and materials to survive

Identify the systems of Earth that make up environments: air – atmosphere, land – lithosphere, water – hydrosphere, living things – biosphere
Describe how the needs of living things are provided by the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere
Describe the relationship between habitat, ecosystem and environment
Observe and describe living and non-living things in a habitat
Describe how Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ practices support habitats to survive
Describe the transfer of energy between plants and animals using food chains, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024

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Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre

address Field of Mars Reserve
Pittwater Road
East Ryde NSW 2112

telephone 02 9816 1298

email fieldofmar-e.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Get directions

Ecosystem explorers incursion program

Teacher checklist

Suggested timetable - for bushland site

Time

Activity