What an incredible opportunity, a week-long expedition working with such passionate and knowledgeable scientists.

The BushBlitz expedition was a two week expedition with over 30 scientists from different fields, sampling, surveying and collecting data for exploration and conservation.  Seven teachers from all over South Australia were accepted, through an application process to attend the trip. I arrived for the second week of the expedition, with only one other teacher.  This meant we had flexibility and choice about which scientists we assisted for the day.  Lucky us!

Over the week I have flown in a corporate 8-seater plane to Ceduna, surveyed the mallee habitat for dragon species, swept flowering eucalypts for native bees, walked the wrack on the beach looking for bivalves, practised using a key to identify existing species and stopped to appreciate the diversity of organisms.

Highlights of the trip were:

• Visiting Head of Bight, the most northern extent of the Great Australian Bight.
• Watching a stand-off between a Goulds Goanna and a Dugite.
• Looking at different tracks and scats (poo!)
• Appreciating how many different holes are in fact homes (reptile, wombat, bird, insect).
• Learning new scientific terminology – marine and terrestrial.
• Understanding the efficiency of DNA barcoding of species for ease of identification.
• Zoom calling Miss Mac and Mr Popplewell’s classes with a marine biologist.

Such an amazing opportunity for networking and collaboration.  I have already tentatively booked visits from these scientists to visit school next year!

If you missed it, the visiting teachers have been blogging daily with our daily highlights.

https://www.earthwatch.org.au/Blogs/teacher-blog

Sarah Todd

Science Teacher