• InfoNest
  Information for student research and learning on seven areas of ecology: Food and energy, Competition, Predation, Life Cycle, Decomposition, Adaptations and Forest Management (predator control). The InfoNest also has stories about tui in both English and Maori and a glossary.
• Activities
  Ecology as a study, has concepts and ideas that need lots of reinforcement. This mix of activities gives opportunities for students to gain experience and skill in dealing with new ideas. Print and copy this record sheet for students to record their scores.
• Interactive online (24) good fun, reinforce basic ideas
• students can work on these in pairs - one pair to a computer
• the activities are self explanatory, no prior technical skill is required to play them
• students can keep a record of their score for each activity
• activities open in a new browser window so that students can move between InfoNest pages and activity to find answers
• Print and Copy activities (7) based on the InfoNest
• these are designed to be printed and photocopied for classroom use
• each activity sheet is based on one section of the InfoNest
• Online quizzes (7) personalised results, paste into books
• students work as individuals or pairs - one pair to a computer
• students enter their name and teachers name so that their printed answers are personalised (student names are not retained)
• each quiz is based on one section of the info nest
• each quiz opens in a new browser window so that students can move between info nest pages and the quiz to find answers
• Online multi-choice tests (7) self-marked tests with feedback
• students work as individuals or pairs - one pair to a computer
• the result page provides a score out of 10 and feedback on the correct answer - this page could be printed out as a record of the test
• each test is based on one section of the info nest
• each test opens in a new browser window so that students can move between info nest pages and the quiz to find answers
• Tiaki's Life
  This section and its highly interactive game puts all the ecological ideas to the test. Can Tiaki survive to produce chicks?
• The shockwave game enables the user to role play being Tiaki in three different forests: a pre-human forest without predation where life is pretty easy; in a forest with predation and thirdly in a forest where the user plays the part of a forest ranger setting traps.
• The game includes three question sets enabling users to score points. Going over the questions before playing the game will help maximise those scores! Here are the same questions with answers, in Word and pdf format:
• easy questions and answers Word/pdf
• medium questions and answers Word/pdf
• hard questions and answers Word/pdf

Increasing understanding of ecological concepts

 

Component

Suggested use

Pre-test

Good starter. Use either online or print the word or pdf versions.

Stories

Print from the computer (too hard to read on-screen). Use as basis for discussion and other activities

Concept pages

Use as the basis for knowledge acquisition - either print out or use on screen

Activities
Interactive online (24)- good fun, reinforce basic ideas
Print and Copy activities (7)- based on the info nest
Online quizzes (7)- personalised results, paste into books
Multi-Choice tests (7)- self-marked tests with feedback

Links

Use these (with supervision) to find answers to questions that come from study

Email questions

Send questions to the Ecological Society listserver

Tiaki's life shockwave game

Test skills and knowledge in a fun, interactive, online game

Post-test

Compare the improvement in understanding of the key concepts between before and after student exposure to TuiTime