Will Wonders Never Cease? The Big Bug Bonanza

Learning intention:
I am learning to navigate information in an online environment so that I can become more confident in conducting internet research independently.

 

Success criteria:

• I can locate a website using the address bar
• I can use navigation to move between pages of a website
• I can use a web page layout to locate information for my research.

 

After reading the article, ask students to share an interesting fact they learnt about cicadas from the article. Answers may include:

• Cicadas spend 17 years underground buried in the soil
• Billions of them come out together, climb trees and become adults
• They only live for a few weeks as adults
• They breed and lay eggs in tree stems
• When the eggs hatch, they drop down in the soil and the process starts again.

Ask students if they can think of any questions they have about cicadas now that they have learnt a little about them. For example:

• What do cicadas eat?
• How are their calls so loud?
• What do they do for all that time under the soil?
• Do they talk to each other?

Distribute a laptop or tablet device to students and ensure they are connected to the internet. Students may share with a partner or small group depending on the availability of devices.

Ask students to type australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/ into the address bar on their internet browser. Once everyone is on this page, ask students to read the introduction at the top of the page silently. Following this, ask students to scroll down to the heading ‘Learn about Insects in our World’ and click or tap on the red plus sign to expand the information. Next ask them to click or tap on the hyperlink ‘Predators, parasites and parasitoids. Allocate a sub-headed section of this article to each pair or group, then give the class time to read through their section and discuss an interesting fact that they found in their reading. Ask each pair or group to share their interesting fact with the class.

Next, have students use the back arrow button at the top of the browser window to navigate back to the main ‘Insects’ page. Inform students that they will now be choosing their own article to read through and research an insect. To do this, they will need to click or tap on the red plus of one of the insect categories, then click on a hyperlink to navigate to that article.

Once they have selected their article, they should read or scan through the text to learn about their chosen insect/s. They should then choose five interesting facts which each student should write down in their books, as well as one question that they now have about their insect.

If time allows, each pair or group should share their facts with the class.