Rewild -LS3-High School

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Use Your Voice

Take your learning to the world & create change

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Your Weekly Keywords

Each week, students will investigate ten new words that connect to their learning about biodiversity and STEM. These words are like special tools that help young scientists share ideas, describe how nature works, and grow their scientific vocabulary.

You could introduce the idea of a scientist’s or explorer’s toolkit, where every new word becomes a tool for observing, questioning, explaining, and understanding the world. Just as scientists use instruments to explore nature, students can use language to make sense of what they discover.

Encourage conversation, teamwork, and reflection as students create their own definitions. This approach helps them think deeply, use language with care, and build confidence in expressing their ideas clearly and purposefully.

Each week, you’ll explore a new collection of important words linked to the learning journey ahead. Think of these words as treasures in an ecology pack. They’ll help you describe your discoveries, talk about what you see in nature, and sound like a real world-changer.

Begin by reading your task card carefully.

With a partner, try to explain what each word means using your own thoughts and ideas, rather than looking in a dictionary. Take your time and talk it through together. Building meanings as a team helps you understand deeply and express your ideas clearly.

When you’ve finished, share your explanations with another pair. Listen, compare, and see where your ideas match or differ. You might discover a clever new way to describe one of the words or learn something you hadn’t noticed before.

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Quote of the Week: First Nations Wisdom

When discussing the quote, acknowledge that this wisdom comes from First Nations cultures and is a widely held teaching. Encourage students to explore how their local custodians or Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander communities. Express similar values, recognising that each Nation has its own stories, teachings and ways of caring for Country that we can learn from.

Give students a quiet moment to reflect on its meaning. Encourage them to think about what caring for the land looks like in everyday life and how nature, in turn, cares for us.

Invite students to discuss the quote with a partner and share one small action they could take this week to look after the land. This might be planting something new in the garden, reducing waste, learning about local animals, or simply spending time in nature.

Support students as they connect the words of the First Nations People to their own lives and their sense of responsibility for the Earth. Investigate if your local First Nation group has a saying or mantra that reflects how they care for Country in your area.

Guide them in creating their own quote cards inspired by this message.

Encourage colour, creativity, and personal reflection. Observe how students show empathy and respect for Country, and awareness of their role as caretakers of the planet.

This week’s quote comes from the First Nations wisdom about caring for Country. It reminds us of the deep connection between people and the Earth:
“If you look after Country, Country will look after you.”

These words teach an important truth about care and respect. When we look after the soil, plants, animals, and water around us, nature gives back by providing what we need to live and grow. It’s a gentle reminder that we are part of the same living system, not separate from it.

Take a moment to think about what this message means to you. How can we look after the land in our daily lives? What does it mean for the land to look after us in return?

Talk with a partner about one small action you could take this week to care for Country, perhaps planting a native tree, cleaning up a local park, or learning more about the traditional custodians of your area.

Then, use the quote card template to create your own message of care and respect for the planet. You might choose a saying from First Nations Culture, something from your own culture, or write your own words that express how humans and nature can look after one another

Story of the Week - The Wolves of Yellowstone

Encourage students to read the story with a partner to build fluency, confidence, and shared understanding. Support them as they take turns reading aloud, using expression to bring the story and the landscape of Yellowstone to life.

Invite students to think about why the wolves were so important, what happened when they disappeared, and how their return restored balance to nature. Discuss and define key vocabulary such as rewilding, ecosystem, keystone species, biodiversity and apex predator linking these ideas to examples from Australia or your local environment. For example, what is/was the apex predator in your area and how does/did its presence help to shape your local ecosystem? How and why might that have changed over time?What species introduced to Australia (such as foxes and cats) may be filling the niche as apex predators and what impact might that have?

Focus on reflective discussion rather than direct answers. This activity builds literacy, listening, and comprehension skills while developing empathy, curiosity, and environmental awareness. It helps students see how every species has a role to play, or an impact, and how caring for the natural world can help entire ecosystems thrive again.

This week, you’ll explore the incredible true story of how wolves helped bring Yellowstone National Park back to life.

On your task card, you’ll find the story and some fascinating facts about how the return of just fourteen wolves changed an entire ecosystem. You’ll discover how these amazing animals helped rivers flow more smoothly, trees and plants grow tall again, and other creatures like beavers, birds, and fish return to their natural homes.

Read the story with a friend and talk about what happened. Why were the wolves so important to Yellowstone? What went wrong when they disappeared, and how did their return make such a big difference?

Then, think about your own surroundings. Are there animals or habitats near your school or community that may play the same role? Do they need care and protection? What small actions could you take to help nature find its balance again?

Together, you’ll begin to understand how every living thing has a role to play and how rewilding can bring the heartbeat of nature back to life.

Comprehension – Sustainable Habitats and the Balance of Nature

Guide students through the reading, pausing to highlight key ideas about how animals meet their needs for food, water, shelter, and breeding, and how these connect to form a balanced and sustainable ecosystem. Encourage them to think about how different species depend on one another and discuss how even small changes in one part of a habitat can affect the whole environment.

Emphasise the skills on interpreting texts - skills such as notetaking, identifying key ideas and making connections across content.

After reading, invite students to reflect on what they have learnt by summarising the main points in their own words. Model how to pick out key facts and explain them clearly, focusing on meaning and understanding rather than copying from the text.

Encourage students to take short notes on the most useful facts and examples, explaining that these will help them later when they begin researching and planning how to protect or rewild their own chosen animal species.

This week, you will read an information text about how animals, plants, and environments work together to create balanced habitats. As you read, look for the key ideas that explain what makes a habitat sustainable, how animals compete for food, water, and shelter, and how every part of nature plays an important role in keeping ecosystems strong.

Think about how producers, consumers, and decomposers are linked through food chains and how changes at one level can affect every other level in the ecosystem. Notice what happens when predators disappear, when habitats are lost, or when there are too many of one kind of animal.

After reading, reflect on what helps animals survive in their habitats and how people can protect these environments. Consider how balance, competition, and connection all work together to support life.

As you work, take notes on the most important facts and ideas. These notes will help you later when you begin planning how to protect or rewild your own chosen animal species. Think about what lessons from this text could guide your future conservation choices.

Record Your Answers – How Far Can You Go?

Explain that there are 12 questions arranged across four levels, moving from simple recall to deeper critical thinking. Students should complete them in order, writing in full sentences and using facts from the text to support their ideas.

Model one think-aloud example to show how to find clues in the text and form a clear answer. Then give students quiet time to complete the task independently, allowing them to re-read the text as needed.

Encourage students to use examples from local sources where possible. Students may underline key words, make short notes in the margins, and use sentence starters to help build thoughtful answers. When finished, ask them to record the highest level reached and note one area they would like to improve next.

Observe each student’s comprehension, reasoning, written accuracy, perseverance, and ability to self-assess or ask for clarification when needed.

After reading the information about biodiversity, habitats, and ecosystems, you’ll answer 12 comprehension questions that increase in challenge. You’ll begin with Level 1 questions (simple recall) and work your way up to Level 4 (critical thinking).

Write your answers in full sentences, using facts and examples from the text or other sources to explain your ideas clearly. Take your time and move carefully through each question, seeing how far you can go.

If you reach a question that feels difficult, pause and think. That moment shows your understanding is growing and that you’re ready to explore new ideas about how living things stay connected in nature.

Threats to Habitats - Find the Solutions

Encourage students to analyse each threat by asking why it happens and how it affects ecosystems. Motivate discussion about local examples. Guide them to evaluate which solutions are practical and which might have unintended consequences, while also allowing for novel solutions.

Question who they think is responsible for addressing threats. The individual? Industry? Government? - and how an individual can influence change for some of the bigger issues.

(Note: Later in the program we will dive more deeply into advocacy and individual empowerment for eliciting change, and focus on local threats for local species).

Support small-group discussions where students compare ideas, justify their reasoning, and challenge one another respectfully. Emphasise that critical thinking means questioning, connecting, and reflecting before deciding. Observe how students move beyond simple answers to demonstrate deeper understanding and creativity in solving real environmental problems and in particular connecting links and knock-on effects of how one threat can exacerbate another.

In this activity, you’ll look closely at the threats to biodiversity shown in the charts. Each one shows how human actions can make life difficult for animals, plants, and the environment.

Your job is to choose ten different threats from the list and think of creative ways to solve them. For example, if the problem is chemicals, you could check the cleaning products used in school and make posters to help people choose safer options.

Work together in groups to come up with your best ideas and write them in the Solutions to Threats table. For each threat, explain what could be done to make the world a safer, healthier place for all living things.

Try to be inventive, realistic, and kind — your ideas might even inspire real change!

Dear Minister – Letters for Change

Guide students through the model letter, pointing out effective techniques such as:

Using polite and purposeful language.

Explaining local issues clearly with evidence from their research.

Showing optimism and action rather than blame.

Ending with an invitation that encourages partnership and dialogue.

Encourage students to personalise their letters so each one feels genuine and heartfelt. You might wish to discuss audience awareness — writing to a leader means balancing confidence, respect, and persuasion.

Once complete, collect the letters, review them for clarity and tone, and prepare them for posting as a single class package. This simple act helps students see how their voices can inspire real-world environmental change.

You’ve identified threats to local habitats and created thoughtful solutions to help restore nature. Now, it’s time to share your findings with someone who can make a difference.

In this activity, you’ll read an example letter written by Abbie. You’ll also look at a set of writing tips that will help you use the right language and tone. Then, you’ll write your own persuasive letter to your local member of council or environmental minister.

Your goal is to:

Explain the threats you’ve identified and the creative solutions you’re putting into action.
Use persuasive and respectful language that encourages the minister to visit your school.
End your letter with a clear invitation for them to come and see what your class is doing to protect local habitats and improve connectivity.

When everyone has finished, all the letters will be placed together in one envelope. Your teacher will post them to the address of your local member. And who knows — perhaps the minister will visit your school to continue the conversation and see your amazing work in person.

Activity – Reading the Landscape

This activity encourages students to explore how digital tools like Google Maps can support geographical and environmental understanding. By switching between satellite and street views, students practise reading both visual data (roads, trees, rivers, buildings) and combining it with their local knowledge (pets, pollution, fencing, or chemical use).

As they identify and record threats using coordinates, students learn to interpret spatial data accurately while considering multiple perspectives.

Encourage them to discuss how technology helps us see patterns from above, while our lived experiences fill in the unseen details on the ground. This combination of visual interpretation and local understanding deepens critical thinking and helps students make informed conclusions about how animals move safely through their local landscape.

In this activity, you’ll be exploring the world around you using a satellite map. You’ll start by looking at where you live from three different views – the city view, the neighbourhood view, and then zoom right in to your local area.

Use Google Maps to find your school or home, then switch to Satellite View. Take a screenshot of your map and paste it into the grid we’ve provided.

Once you have your map, start looking for things that might be threats to animals that live nearby. These could include roads, bridges, fences, cleared land, pets, or chemical sprays. Some of these hazards are easy to see from above, while others come from your own local knowledge – what you know about your area.

After you’ve studied our example map, use your own map to plot the threats you find. Write down their coordinates and explain how you know what each threat is. Remember, these threats might affect some animals but not others – so think about how each one might change the way animals move, feed, or live in your area.

Also think about any bias or limitations in what you can observe from an aerial map. Maps don't always show you everything and the details such as what kind of fence is in place or the type of vegetation are not visible. What might some of those limitations be on your own map?

Also notice any opportunities for animals - are there large areas of native vegetation - such as a national park or reserve? Is there a river that runs through the area acting as a corridor? Keep these in mind as later this will be useful information when it comes time to select a local Champion Animal and consider how it might access your school once you increase local habitat.

Habitat Connectivity - Threats In Action

Guide students to explore how animals travel through different environments and face obstacles such as roads, fences, and human activity. Encourage discussion about how connectivity supports survival. The teacher may need to distribute an aerial image of the school for all students to use as a base map or use the screen shot from the previous exercise.

Support students as they research local species, identify possible threats, and draw realistic routes showing safe pathways. Emphasise collaboration, creative thinking, and practical problem-solving throughout the task.

Prompt them to think about where animals find food, water and shelter, and how specific behaviours (flying, gliding, burrowing or being nocturnal) may affect the way each species moves.

Encourage students to consider seasonal or time-of-day changes that might influence movement patterns. Ask questions such as: How would this animal travel at night? Or, Does it move differently in summer or winter?

In this activity, you’ll learn how animals move around their environment and what dangers they face along the way. First, read about the three animals shown here – the Eastern Rosella, Sugar Glider, and Echidna – and look carefully at how each one travels from Point A to Point B while trying to stay safe. Notice how fences, roads, and gardens affect their journeys.

Then, you’ll choose three animals from your local area and research how they might move across your school or neighbourhood. Use Google Maps to get a bird’s-eye view of your area and think about the threats your animals might face, such as roads, pets, or a lack of trees.

Finally, use the template to draw your animals’ journeys from Point A to Point B, showing how they would find food, water, and shelter while avoiding dangers. Once complete, share your maps and explain how each animal depends on connectivity to survive and thrive in your local environment.

Activity: Eddie the Echidna’s Big Adventure – Create Your Own Wildlife Comic!

Guide students to explore the journey from an animal’s point of view, encouraging empathy and perspective-taking. This includes considering species specific behaviour including its form of locomotion (flight, gliding, burrowing), daily activity (nocturnal or diurnal behaviour) and impacts of seasonal or daily weather patterns.

Discuss how fences, roads, and human activity impact wildlife movement and survival. Model how to express an animal’s thoughts and feelings through captions or dialogue. Emphasise understanding the creature’s needs rather than simply describing events.

Observe how students communicate the animal’s perspective and awareness of environmental connectivity in their storytelling and visual choices.

Before students begin, activate prior knowledge by discussing what makes a comic.

Prompt students to consider:

• What is a comic?

• Have you read one before? What did you notice?

• Do comics always use words?

• How do pictures and text work together to tell a story?

• Why are speech bubbles, captions and panels useful?

• What information comes from images vs words?

Highlight that comics communicate meaning through imagery, layout, sequencing, and selective text. Encourage students to think about how visual choices (e.g., colour, size, expression) help the audience understand the animal’s journey, feelings, and environment.

You’ve just read the story of Eddie the Echidna, who faced many dangers while searching for food. This comic strip showed how fences, roads, poisons, and pets can make life hard for wildlife. Without connectivity in our environment, animals can struggle to find food, water, shelter, or a safe path — sometimes putting them in real danger.

Now it’s your turn to think like an animal!

Choose a creature that lives in your local environment — it could be a bird, lizard, insect, frog, or any wild animal nearby.
Imagine its journey through the world. What dangers might it face? What helps it survive? What time of day is it active and how does it move about?
Use the blank comic strip template to tell its story from the animal’s point of view, just like Eddie’s adventure.
Add captions and speech bubbles to make it fun, educational, and easy for younger children to understand.
Present your comic to a younger class and explain what it teaches about connectivity — how all parts of nature are linked and why safe pathways for wildlife matter.
When everyone has finished, your class will collect all the comics into one book and upload it to The Dear World Library so the whole world can read your stories and learn from your work.

Weekly Mindfulness – The Art of Nature: Time to Reflect

This activity encourages students to slow down, observe carefully, and connect with nature through creativity. Guide them to spend quiet time outside if possible, or to observe nature from a window. Encourage optional differentiated outputs (sketch, written reflection, labelled diagram, sensory notes).

Model mindful observation considering time of day, sounds, temperatures, weather and using the example of a tree study, highlighting detail, texture, and pattern. Encourage curiosity and imaginative thinking rather than perfection in drawing. Observe students’ ability to focus, notice fine details, and express their reflections creatively through both art and words.

This week, you’ll be doing the same activity — spending time observing nature closely, but this time the focus is on habitat connectivity. Try to go outside if you can, even if it’s just the school playground, your garden, or a nearby park. If you can’t go out, look through a window and take notice of the world beyond the glass.

Bring your sketchbook or the task card opposite and let your mind be calm and your eyes focused. Look carefully at the small details —and look for how habitats are connected even at a tiny scale.

Before you begin, take a look at our example of connected habitats for inspiration. Then, let your mind wander and be as creative as possible as you draw and describe what you see. Perhaps you may like to reflect on the scale of connection or how the animal is using it. You can use words to express your feelings or observations. This is your moment to pause, notice, and connect with nature through art.

Your Digital Résumé – Experience 3

This week, students will create Experience 3 for their digital résumé. Ask them to reflect on a moment from this week that felt meaningful to their learning or growth. It might be researching local environmental threats, writing letters to leaders, or recognising how their own choices can help nature stay connected.

Guide students to take three photographs that represent their learning journey this week, capturing real actions, discoveries, or moments of reflection.

Encourage them to choose one image that best expresses what they have learnt and write a thoughtful reflection about it. Their writing should explore what they observed, how it made them feel, and what impact it could have on themselves, their peers, and their wider community.

Support students to understand that every action, no matter how small, contributes to positive change. Encourage them to see their reflections as part of a growing story that celebrates connection, responsibility, and care for the natural world.

Throughout this course, you will continue to build your own digital résumé. It will be a personal portfolio that captures your learning journey and allows you to collect your work, celebrate your growth, and reflect on what has shaped you along the way.

This week, you will be adding your third experience, a reflection on what you found most meaningful or impactful. What activity or moment from this week stands out the most to you? How did this experience help you grow as a learner or thinker? How might this learning influence your actions or choices in the future? What moment made you proud this week?

It might be researching threats to nature, writing your letter to the minister, or realising how small actions can protect the planet.

As the weeks continue, your résumé will grow into a beautiful record of your development. By the end of the course, it will not only show what you have achieved but also reveal who you are becoming, a learner, a thinker, and a person who cares deeply about making a positive difference in the world.

Share Your Thoughts on Dear World

This week, students will create and share their Dear World story with a focus on responsibility. Guide them to reflect on what they have learned about habitat connectivity and the duty humans have to ensure animals and insects can live safely beside us.

Encourage students to choose one meaningful moment from the week, perhaps realising how roads, tree removal or human activity affect wildlife. Support them to explain how their thinking has changed and what it means to act as an ambassador for nature.

Help students shape their reflection into a short, purposeful story that highlights growth, awareness and action. Prompt them to consider what others could learn from their new sense of responsibility.

Once complete, students will upload their story to the Dear World Library, including photos or evidence of their learning where appropriate. Celebrate reflections that show maturity, compassion and a genuine commitment to protecting our shared planet.

This week, your story should focus on responsibility.

You have learned that we have moved into the neighbourhoods of animals and insects. By building roads and cutting down trees, we have changed how they live and travel. With that knowledge comes responsibility.

In your Dear World story, reflect on:

• What you now understand about our duty to protect wildlife
• How your thinking has changed
• What it feels like to act as an ambassador for nature and habitat connectivity
• What others could learn from your new sense of responsibility

Upload your reflection to the Dear World Library and include any photos or evidence of your learning.

Use your voice to show that small actions matter. When we take responsibility, we help create a safer, more connected world for all living things.

Take the Quiz and Get your Certificate

Week 3 Quiz and Responsibility Certificate

Week 3 focuses on responsibility as a core skill. This is the third of ten certificates students will collect across the course, with each week highlighting a different skill that contributes to their overall growth.

Students complete the weekly quiz by clicking the online link provided. It can be done independently in class or at home. You may encourage discussion with a partner before submission to help refine thinking and deepen understanding. However, each child must complete and submit their own quiz, as certificates are awarded individually.

Frame this as reflection and consolidation rather than assessment. This is not a test. It is an opportunity for students to consider what responsibility means in the context of protecting living things and caring for the world around them.

As students complete the quiz, observe:

• Ownership of their learning
• Care and thoughtfulness in their responses
• Digital confidence and independence
• Perseverance when reflecting on complex ideas
• Evidence that they understand the connection between actions and consequences
• Continued growth in accuracy and depth across the weeks

Across the ten weeks, students are building a collection of certificates that represent ten essential life skills. Responsibility is a powerful one, as it moves learning from understanding into action.

This week you learned about habitat connectivity and how living things depend on safe, connected spaces to survive. You explored how roads, fences and human actions can break these connections and what we can do to help.

At the end of the week, you will complete a short online quiz. It will help you reflect on:

• How animals move through habitats
• What happens when habitats are fragmented
• Why our choices matter

This is not a test. It is a chance to show what you understand.

Once you finish, you will receive your Week 3 Responsibility Certificate. This shows that you understand how actions affect nature and how you can help protect our connected world.

Remember, there are ten certificates to collect. Each one represents a new skill you are building on your journey.

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