Activity 1 - Classify and Identify Local Native Plants
Looking closely at plants around Brewongle, students learn the basic parts of a woody plant (trees and shrubs), then learn how to use a dichotomous key to identify plants. They work their way through the dichotomous key by making successive choices based on the plant they’re attempting to identify.
Activity 2 - Adaptations of Native Plants to Bushfire
Students use the Freeform App on iPads to photograph and describe adaptations that local native (Dry Sclerophyll) plants have to bushfire. Students focus on particular plants, analysing how certain features make them well adapted to bushfire. While walking from this activity to the earthlab, students look at the bracken fern near Wattungle classroom. Class discussion of cultural cool burns and how First Nations People have changed the environment.
Activity 3 - What Makes a Place “Bushfire Prone”?
Starting in the Earth Lab, students use Google Earth to locate Brewongle, then change scale and walk to the ridgetop classroom to assess features that make a place more “prone” to bushfire, including:
• Connectivity to other bush
• Topography/slope
• Vegetation structure and moisture (students create their own nature maps to illustrate these features). Weather permitting, students can view the burn test.
• Climate, weather and microclimate
Activity 4 - Comparing Environments
Students walk to the gully classroom. They assess vegetation structure and moisture content using nature maps and the burn test. These results will be compared to those collected in the ridgetop classroom, comparing the two microclimates.
