Students will act as urban ecologists to explore Botanic Park’s Grey-headed Flying-fox camp, and take part in a design thinking sprint to answer the question 'Should we protect the Grey-headed flying fox?'   

Students will go on a guided exploration through the Botanic Park camp with our Education staff to understand Australia’s beloved and misunderstood fruit bat’s life cycle, adaptations, diet, and bat-human urban interactions and threats. Students will complete an observational Ecosystem Site Assessment looking at the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) factors and impacts of this colony on the landscape. Students will then participate in applying design thinking to a real conservation problem to answer the question ‘Should we protect the Grey-headed flying fox?’. 

Students will: 

• Understand the ecosystem and relationships of the Grey-headed Flying-fox camp site in Botanic Park. 

• Understand the ecosystem role of the bat as a keystone species pollinator and seed disperser within the food web, ecological relationships, and supporting biodiversity. 

• Use an Ecosystem Site Assessment tool to gauge the impact of the bats on the landscape, including living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) factors. 

• Observe, record, compare, communicate findings on wildlife. 

• In small groups, complete a Design Thinking challenge to come up with a solution to threats to the species. 

• Consider how human activity including climate change affects native species, environments and explore actions for sustainability. 

Curriculum links:  

• Science 

• Design and Technologies 

• HASS / Geography 

Duration: 75 - 90 minutes