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What's in the Box - Minibeast Magnified
The Museum in a Box® - Insects contains collecting equipment and material to conduct minibeast surveys in the school grounds. To test out all the equipment and activities we visited students at Ermington Public School.
I wanted to do some filming of students using the equipment that is used in the Museum in a Box. Sue Lewis presented Web2Spider toolkit that is included in the Spiders box while I filmed the students exploring the local bushland. Even with the cold and wet weather the students found and identified several different spider species, they found lots of webs from Golden Orb Weavers, Leaf Curling spiders and Black House spiders.
Sue and I then switched roles and I went through the collecting equipment in the Insect box and she filmed. I went some of the techniques used to conduct minibeast surveys including pitfall traps, leaf beating and a transect.
It was a great day and when I was editing the footage it was interesting to hear the students using the all information and terms to located and identify different species. I was able to get the footage ready to show the students from Ermington Public School when they visited the Australian Museum a few weeks later and again it was great to listen to the students comments and how much they recalled from the day.
Both Web2Spider and What's in my Backyard are great activites that can be done throughout the year in your school. It's good to compare the results from different times of year.
Hope you all have fun looking for Minibeasts.
Museum in a box - Insects View full size
James King
© Australian Museum
Museum in a box - spiders View full size
James King
© Australian Museum