Lesson Planning

Teaching

• Build a bug hotel according to the group designs.
• Photograph and record the results of the build.
• Predict what each microhabitat will attract and annotate the photographs with these predictions.
• Observe over time what happens to the bug hotel.
• Consider evaluative questions such as: Do any of the microhabitats need adapting? Are they being successful? How do we know? Does the weather or do the seasons make a difference to the occupancy of the bug hotel? Do we predict it will be more or less popular when it is raining? Or in the summer?

Activities

1. Build a bug hotel according to the group designs.
2. Make some predictions about what each microhabitat will attract and how different weather conditions and seasons might change their features.
3. Begin to form questions and make plans to observe and evaluate the microhabitats over time.

Investigation - problem solving
In groups, design a layer of the bug hotel, incorporate specific micro-habitats agreed for that group by the class. Build a bug hotel according to the group designs.

Vocabulary
Micro-habitats, light, dark, shady, damp, dry, seasons, sun